Suzan St Maur’s new e-book The Easy Way to Be Brilliant at Business Writing makes a bold claim in the title–and delivers.

Suzan begins with some general advice that applies to any type of business writing–such things as grammar, voice, punctuation and editing. Not sexy, perhaps, but essential.

From there, she examines every type of business writing under the sun–

Web
E-mail
PR (online and offline)
Newsletters
Articles
White Papers
Advertising
Sales Letters
Brochures
Business Letters
Resumes
Reports
Instructions
Humor
Spoken Communication

At 120 pages, the book provides plenty of detail without being overwhelming. Her writing style is conversational, intelligent and entertaining–

“Writer’s block is no artsy cliche–it’s a real pain that holds you up for expensive hours. The blank screen or piece of paper has terrified even famous authors for generations and we poor business mortals suffer just as badly.

“Unlike the famous authors of old we usually haven’t got time to seek inspiration through bacchanalian debauchery or an uplifting stroll amongst ‘a host of golden daffodils.’ However there are a few tricks we can use, and they work pretty well for everything from an email to a brochure or business proposal.” (page 32)

The structure of the book is most appealing. It’s a series of crisp but connected tips–microbursts of instruction that get right to the point. For reinforcement she includes plenty of examples, making everything quite clear for even fairly inexperienced writers.

Suzan asked me to review this book (with no compensation), and I was very interested to do so because it sounded like an excellent resource for small and midsize business. It is.

If you are wearing several hats–or all the hats–at your company, make Be Brilliant part of your wardrobe!

Word Sell … Scrambled Toast