The Economist Style Guide
When you've got a broken ankle, there's not much point in going to the doctors just to be told, 'You've got a broken ankle'. What you want is to be told how to make it better.
Think of this book as a doctor for writers! There are various books around pointing justifiable ridicule at the incomprehensible jargon that sometimes creeps into business presentations and reports - just what do 'paradigm shift', 'experience in social cohesion' and 'facilitating synergistic alliances and go-forward engagement processes' actually mean?
This book pours scorn on such rubbish - and tells you how to write better. It gives the difference between continuous and continual; it states that drugs are taken, not used ('Does he use sugar?'); it differentiates between prevaricate and procrastinate and between forgo and forego; it reminds us that 'to try and end the killing' is not the same as 'to try to end the killing'; it tells us why a group of people cannot be protagonists, and why something cannot build to a crescendo. Wondering where to stick the apostrophe, if any, after Jones? Want to know how many a trillion is? How many times bigger, or smaller, is a nano than a micro?
The answers are all in this very well written book. And it's entertaining as it instructs. For example: 'Anticipate does not mean expect. Jack and Jill expected to marry; if they anticipated marriage, only Jill might find herself expectant.'
If you are responsible for writing anything for your business, from a flyer to a 100-page report, from a two-minute sales pitch to an after-dinner speech, then I cannot recommend this book too highly.
JMS
|
|
£16.99
Profile Books
ISBN: 1861979169 |
 |
|
|
The Economist Pocket World in Figures
and
The Economist Business Miscellany
Stuck for a gift for the man who has everything? Or are you desperate to be quiz champ down at your local? Here are two possible perfect answers.
Actually that is very unfair as both books are fascinating compendia of business, economic and social information. Browsing through the incredible range of facts and figures doesn't just inform, entertain and surprise. They provide ample food for thought for new business opportunities.
The World in Figures is in two parts: world rankings and country profiles. So you can find listings of everything from birth rates to the highest quality of life (Ireland); business costs to corruption levels; life expectancy to divorce rates; teenage obesity to pollution. The second part is a summary of vital statistics for each country.
This little book is an eye-opener - and quite sobering. Whilst some items are intriguing (why are there only 84 males per 100 females in Latvia but 206 in Qatar?), others are shocking (infant mortality is 160 per 1,000 in Sierra Leone but just three in Singapore).
Business Miscellany is more a book to dip into than refer to, and is more focused on businesses and people. All business life is here, from the most valuable brands to the highest-paid bosses; famous rogues and bubbles that burst; the best and worst ad campaigns; the oldest companies and the origins of the names of currencies. And there are some gems of quotes: 'We don't have a monopoly - we have market share. There's a difference' - Steve Balmer, Microsoft.
It's a wide and quirky selection but guaranteed to provide a good opener at the next boring dinner party.
Andrew James
|
|
£10.99 and £9.99 respectively
Economist Books
ISBN: 1861977425
and 1861979118
respectively |
|
(World in Figures)
(Business Miscellany) |
|
|
|
 |
