The Power of Writing Well

The Thoughtful Leader's Model for Business and Technical Communications

By: Pete Geissler

Narrated by: Ray Allaire

"A bad writer has no rights whatever. Any mercy shown to him is wasted and mistaken." H.L. Mencken, 1880-1956

I wrote The Power of Writing Well to address everything managers, leaders, engineers, scientists, and others need to be better senders and receiver's, not to cover everything they need to know about the language or to be the perfect sender or receiver; nobody is.

The many books on writing and communicating that claim to be everything to everybody fail simply because they are overwhelmingly complex, full of jargon and useless labels and distinctions such as participial phrase as opposed to gerund phrase, or transitive verb versus intransitive verb. Most of us outside of academe don't care, and we shouldn't since they are not relevant to our needs.

This short book condenses the habits and techniques - your tools - that work most of the time for most of the people who write at work and want to be happier in all parts of their lives: nothing more, nothing less . It is also a true and accurate reflection of my 40 years of writing for business and of teaching writing at two prestigious universities and many professional societies and companies. You can trust that what I'm telling you will improve your abilities to communicate and think, and make you more productive, promotable, and happy. It will also make your organization more efficient and profitable.

I guarantee it, and my students attest to it .

©2015 Pete Geissler (P)2016 Pete Geissler

The way this book teaches

What insight do you think you’ll apply from The Power of Writing Well?

I really like the way this book teaches better writing: by bringing concepts, habits, and tools into the real world with before and after examples. The book is a conversation with its author, an accomplished writer of business intelligence that you can trust to steer you in the right direction.

Helpful for Leaders

What did you like best about this story?

The many leaders I know that wish their employees could write better can quit wishing and start acting. This book explains, in everyday language, the habits and tools that have improved the writing of thousands of the author's students; they can do the same for your employees.

Practical ,useful advice

What made the experience of listening to The Power of Writing Well the most enjoyable?

you can expect practical, useful advice from a professional writer, and you get it with this book. Geissler has written for a variety of businesses, taught advanced writing at prestigious universities and firms, and authored eight books and counting. Trust him to give you the straight skinny

An Excellent Guide for A Manager

What made the experience of listening to The Power of Writing Well the most enjoyable?

I felt more confident while communicating with my colleagues. The best part of this book is that it 'Lists Down' the to-do stuffs to communicate better. I reaped its benefits, and think you would do too.

I write, and review proposals, and this book is an excellent guide to better articulate my thoughts.

How to Write Well

If you could sum up The Power of Writing Well in three words, what would they be?

"Pragmatic" describes this book. It offers advice on how to write well that is clear, concise, and pointed ..uncluttered by useless theory and jargon. Readers can immediately apply the habits and tools and become more productive and their organizations more efficient

Wonderful

This ab really helped me understand writing on a higher level, forever grateful, Thank you 🙏🏾😊

Okay.... But 1) Too 2) Many 3) Lists

Would you try another book from Pete Geissler and/or Ray Allaire?

This book should have taken its own advice about lists and bullet points. Every single chapter was a series of lists, with sub lists with over-simplified examples that marginally explained the listed item before initiating a sub-list or moving on to another bullet point. Or sometimes had no explanation. Item # 6 in a list of 17 writing tips stated "always be cohesive, and unified", and then went straight to 7. Also, to my memory, it WAS a list of writing techniques, but there were 17 of them and I don't really remember the focus of the list after 17 things and an hour of discussion.

What three words best describe Ray Allaire’s performance?

Well-paced reading for the subject material.

Was The Power of Writing Well worth the listening time?

Somewhat. Probably had 5-10 takeaways after 4 hours of lists.