I learned quite a bit from this book about writing proper letters and other communication. I didn't want to keep it anymore so I donated it to the library.
Read it for school, so didn't do a cover-to-cover, just assigned chapters.
Did learn some stuff about business communication that I didn't know before, so it was useful in that regard.
However, the book was very "Hello, fellow kids." At one point it talked about how young people spend their time "twittering." Twittering. Not tweeting. Twittering.
Also, its advice regarding email newsletters should be taken with a heaping spoonful of salt.
Kind of seriously out of date in places. Hopefully the new edition coming out soon will update those bits for the next round of students about to spend way too much on textbooks. (Book buyback today gave me LESS THAN NINE DOLLARS for this tome that cost me something like $100 when I bought it so I'M A LITTLE BITTER.)
If you struggle with English grammar and/or never learned how to write a letter, this book is for you. If you, like me, are a 30-something mature student with life experience, this is a decent reference at best. It's long, it's dry, and it's mostly common sense and high school language skills. I barely cracked this book open, and when I did it was usually because our instructor wanted the assignment to look like "the example in Chapter X" or something, and then I'd spend far too much time figuring out WHICH example in that chapter she was referring to...
lengthy, dry, and sleep-inducing. the book told readers not to have those qualities but the book itself did. reading this book as compulsory course material felt like having to remember linkedin posts by heart and take tests on them.
This was a textbook for a college class and at first I was reluctant to read it because it did not seem necessary. However I was shocked at how much I learned and how it really improved my business writing and professionalism. You get all different types of advice that contradict each other from people, the internet, and other sources, etc - but it is this book’s content that has appealed to me the most. I’ve been living by its advice and find myself quoting it a lot.
I wasn't looking forward to this class because I figured most of it was common sense. However, there's some really good advice in this book. Especially the chapters on negative messages (dealing with upset customers) and persuasive messages (getting your boss and co-workers to back your ideas).
The textbook arrived within 5 days! It was quick and I personally thought it would take at least a week to come. I was very satisfied on the condition of the book.