E-Writing: 21st-Century Tools for Effective Communication

The book reiterates e-mail etiquette (Netiquette) originally published by Sally Hambridge as RFC1855, but adds valuable advices that are frequently overlooked by the other authors who write about e-mail etiquette in their books and web sites. Such advices are:- If you don't have something to say, don't say it - not all e-mails deserve responses;- Use internationally recognizable dates, and measurements when appropriate. (Is 3/9 meant to be read as March 9 or September 3?);- Don't post "Action or Else" messages if action is irreversible;- Use "For Your Information Only" tags (to the messages that require no action) to help others manage their e-mail volume;- Don't forward messages without adding your own note to tell the recipient why;- Keep one topic in each e-mailHowever, some of the author's suggestions seem to fit only dumb e-mail clients. Such suggestions are "highlight responses in colour to aid reading" or "cut and paste rather than big Reply on long, continuing e-mails". The e-mail clients like "The Bat!" that naturally support quoting have these problems already solved, the quotes there are automatically highlighted and you can type your reply paragraphs between the original text without being afraid of messing the lines.The author encourages composing clear, to-the-point messages. She proposes to highlight the readers' action, to not be cryptic, and to not remove the actors. By examples she helps to create informative subject lines that get quick responses and help readers prioritize.Seven pages of the book will tell you how to manage high-volume e-mail effectively. "Use last-in-first-out, group read later emails into a file and out of sight". I would recommend the book "Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity" by David Allen who addresses the issue of stress-free e-mail management much better than Dianna Booher.In the chapters about writing on the paper or online, she proposes so-called "Descending Outline" and the MADE™ format (Message-Action-Detail-Evidence).She also mentions the "idea wheel" outlining method to arrange your thoughts, which is a simplified technique of Tony Buzan's "mind maps". I would like to recommend you "The Mind Map Book" Tony Buzan and the other books by this author to maximize your brain's untapped potential.A major chapter of this book is devoted to English grammar. You have probably learnt this at school, but a good repetition should still be helpful. The other big chapters are devoted to layout, clarity, conciseness and style, own chapter per each of the points. I will be working further on these grammar, clarity, conciseness and style chapters, and will be for sure re-reading them in future.

Reading this book is a breeze. Dianna Booher had organised and written E-writing as an easy reference and guide. I do not find the first 13 chapters useful because these chapters provide fundamentals that all writers should be aware. I found the rest of the book of varying usefulness: -Chapter 14: Edit for Grammar provides a brief and useful guide on the common pitfalls. Referring to the contents is easy due to the layout.Chapter 15: Edit for clarity, Chapter 16: Editing for Conciseness, Chapter 17: Edit for Style are comprehensive but limited use to writers who have already read on these topics.Chapter 18: Guidelines for document variations on the MADE(trademark)format and Chapter 19: Meeting Minutes have high practical use. The examples used will save the writer blushes and score high on impact.Chapter 20 to Chapter 24 provides the reader a glimpse of points to note when writing in various scenarios.Easy of reading: 5 star. Take me less than 2 weeks to finishUsefulness: 3 star. Usefulness as listed aboveValue for money: 3 star. I measured this by the number of useful chapters to me against the amount I paid for the bookEase of reference: 4 star. Well organised layout that provide ease of reference

The book is not really all about E-writing. Most of the techniques can be used for writing letters as well. Most of the information is common sense. It also gets rather wordy;if you like details about writing anything and everything, this book is for you.

At first I thought this book was just another 'Elements of Style' type book. The deeper I got into the book, the more I realized that this book gets much more specific, and thus it was more helpful in giving me suggestions and ideas that I could 'sink my teeth into'. Tho it is aimed at 'e' mail correspondence in the Corporate environment the application also applies to those of us working independantly, and just wanting to improve our day-to-day 'e' mail correspondence efficiency, and quality.

This is an interesting read. Though I know much of what I am reading it also makes me aware of some don'ts that I have not been aware of.

This book is a must have for any modern day business professional who wants to sharpen their communication skills.

This book offered little new information for me. [To be fair, I have been a professional Senior Technical Writer for over 25 years, so I've learned a lot of what is in the book over the years.]A large portion of the book is focused on the "proper" [my word] use of email, and how to use it effectively. Things that I already knew.One thing that the author specifically discussed, and that I am now implementing, is to make the Subject line more indicative as to the purpose or content of the email. For example, to put "FYI:" at the beginning of the Subject line when all you want the reader to know is that the message requires no action on their part.Like many How-To books, the author came up with an acronym to emphasize her point, her structure. I felt that the acronym was a bit forced and artificial, but there you go. The acronym is MADE, which stands for:* Message* Action* Details* EvidenceYou must read the book to find out what is intended, or figure it out on your own. While I will keep this book as a reference, I might not seek its wisdom often.

I wish it had an audible book as well.