Jul 12 2010
5 Essential Writing Books for Small Businesses
Clients often ask for my recommendation on the must-have writing reference books for their bookshelves. While there are hundreds of books that can assist a small business owner in writing a press release, website content, bylined article, or blog, here are my top 5:
1. The Elements of Style by William Strunk and E.B. White: Every reference shelf begins with this classic. It doesn’t matter what edition you have (I have the fourth); Strunk and White’s style manual is guaranteed to help you become a better writer. Three of my favorite tips:
a. Revise and rewrite.
b. Do not explain too much.
c. Omit needless words.
2. The Synonym Finder by J.I. Rodale: I was using Roget’s Thesaurus faithfully until I heard that The Synonym Finder is vastly superior. It’s more comprehensive than a thesaurus and simpler to use.
3. On Writing by Stephen King: The first part of the book is a memoir, and eases you into the second part which delves into the writing craft. Although this book is primarily for novelists, much of the advice is applicable to business writing as well. King described the book as a guide for how a competent writer can become a good one. One piece of advice: edit out unnecessary details and thoroughly avoid the use of unnecessary adverbs.
4. On Writing Well by William Zinsser: Remember some of those grammar rules you learned in elementary school and high school? Well, Zinsser teaches you that it’s ok to break some of them. For instance, he writes, “Many of us were taught that no sentence should begin with ‘but.’ If that’s what you learned, unlearn it–there’s no stronger word at the start.”
5. Content Rich: Writing Your Way to Wealth on the Web by Jon Wuebben: Want to master SEO copywriting and how to be a better social media writer? This book is an invaluable resource. Wuebben teaches you how to improve your online copy to help generate traffic to your website.
What’s your must-have writing reference book?
Daniel Casciato helps clients write clear, concise, and effective content for blogs, tweets, brochures, newsletters, websites, and other marketing collateral. He also writes health, legal, real estate, and technology-related articles. For more information, visit www.danielcasciato.com, follow him on Twitter, or friend him on Facebook.
4 Responses to “5 Essential Writing Books for Small Businesses”
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Thanks for this — I would have said those top 4 as well (I couldn’t survive without my Synonym Finder). No. 5 is new to me, so I’ll be ordering that today! I also like to recommend Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe’s Guide to Better English in Plain English by Patricia T. O’Connor. And just for fun (geared to British English), I like Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss.
Thanks Christine. I never heard of “Woe Is I” so I may check that out as well.
And I almost added “Eats, Shoots & Leaves: Why, Commas Really Do Make a Difference” to the list. That’s another good one to check out and like you said, a fun read!
Good post, Daniel. Let’s not forget the AP Stylebook and Fowler’s Modern English Usage.
Thanks George…those are also good ones.