There's No Such Thing As Business Writing

Here’s a rave review I gave to Roy Peter Clark’s Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer. This recent book immediately establishes itself as a classic writing primer, and I can’t recommend it highly enough for anyone seeking to improve their writing. Regardless of what you are writing, this book will deliver a handful of insightful tips. Clark animates his book with stellar examples from a surprising range of sources, supporting my argument that good writing is good writing, regardless of where it’s found. In other words, there’s no such thing as business writing, since there’s simply writing, period.

I’ve read through the following two articles several times to see how and where they tap into Clark’s tools. In this taut essay by Hancock Financial Services former CEO David D’Alessandro, see how well he uses details like butcher’s block and “well-seasoned maple wood” to convey a specific scene from his childhood. And how well he moves from a chilling story to a powerful argument. And in this literary take-down by Ron Rosenbaum, note the author’s wonderful blend of attitude and content. He uses enough data from his subject’s column, with reporting and facts of his own, to give his mockery substance.