Kenneth Davis - The McGraw-Hill 36-hour course: business writing and communication

Imagine a one-on-one conversation with a communication guru, mentoring, modeling, and motivating you to become a more effective and efficient communicator. You need not imagine, because that guru, Kenneth Davis, has provided those three Ms in The McGraw-Hill 36-Hour Course in Business Writing and Communication, a book that will transform your hope and dreams for improving your writing into the reality of becoming a better writer.

DR. LYLE SUSSMAN

Professor and Chairman, Department of

Management and Entrepreneurship

College of Business

University of Louisville

Coauthor of Smart Moves, Smart Moves for People in Charge,

What to Say to Get What You Want, Yes You Can,

Close the Deal, and Lost and Found

THE
McGRAW-HILL
36-Hour Course

SECOND EDITION

Kenneth W. Davis, Ph.D.

Copyright 2010 by Kenneth W. Davis. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

ISBN: 978-0-07-174394-5

MHID: 0-07-174394-4

The material in this eBook also appears in the print version of this title: ISBN: 978-0-07-173826-2, MHID: 0-07-173826-6.

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To my fellow members of the Association of Professional
Communication Consultants, especially Dan Dieterich,
Lee Clark Johns, and Barbara Shwom

For making this edition possible, I thank:

The readers of, and commentors on, my blog at manageyour writing.com, including Mohammed Al-Taee, Adam Freedman, Danielle Ingram, Roy Jacobsen, Delaney Kirk, Norm Leigh, David William Peace, Dwayne Phillips, Brad Shorr, Cheryl Stephens, Matthew Stibbe, Raymond P. Ward, and Joanna Young

My designer, Dean Eller, of DesignMark, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

My agent, Paul S. Levine

My team at McGraw-Hill, including Michele Wells, Nancy Hall, and Alison Shurtz

Above all, my wife and partner, Bette Davis

In this knowledge economy, writing is the chief value-producing activity. But you may not be writing as well as you could. That may be because you think writing requires a special talent that some people have and some people dont.

In fact, writing is a process that can be managed like any other business process. If you can manage people, money, or time, then you can manage your writing. And you can profit from the results.

This book will give you the tools to becomein the next 36 hoursa more effective, efficient manager of your own writing.

Youll become more effective because youll learn to produce writing that gets things done.

Youll become more efficient because youll learn to produce more effective writing in less time.

How can this magic happen in just 36 hours? Itll happen because youll learn to take the management skills you already have and apply them to the process of writing. Remember, whether or not the word manager is part of your job title, you clearly are a successful manager. Otherwise, you wouldnt have

the money to buy this book,

the position to have somebody else buy it for you,

or the time and initiative to be browsing through it in a bookstore.

Through your experience in business and in life, youve learned to manage: to manage people, to manage money, to manage time. This book will teach you how to use these same skills when you write.

Let me tell you a story. When I was a kid growing up in rural Iowa, there was a local fisherman who had more money than common sense. He always had the newest, most expensive fishing gear, but he didnt always know how to use it.

One fall he decided to take up ice fishing. He ordered the very best cold-weather clothing, the very best portable shelter, the very best ice saw and tackle. The first winter day our local reservoir had frozen over enough, he was out on the ice at dawn. He set up his shelter, sawed his hole in the ice, sat on his new folding stool, and waited.

Three hours passed without even a sign of a fish. The disgusted fisherman was about to call it quits and head home when he saw a teenage kid in faded blue jeans and a faded green Army field jacket head out onto the ice. The kid whacked a hole in the ice with a hammer, baited a hook, and immediately pulled out a nice fish. Within 10 minutes, the kid had a bucketful and turned back for the shore.

The older man yelled for him, but the kid was apparently out of voice range. So the man started walking fast toward him and finally caught up with him at the shore.