A must for your desk, at work and at home

Writing English should be a pleasure. Although there are rules and conventions, they should be used as a foundation on which to build the confidence to explore the richness and versatility of the language and to put a message across, clearly and simply, in a way that will capture the reader’s attention.

First published in 2007, and now in its 9th edition, with more than 38,000 copies sold by the end of 2020, What Not to Write is an invaluable, entertaining and information-packed A–Z guide that answers all those questions you might hear one person asking another in an office, such as:

Is it ‘a hotel’ or ‘an hotel’?
What are split infinitives, and should you avoid them?
Do you know when to use ‘that’ or ‘which’?
Is a semi-colon like a comma? When do you use a colon?
It’s mine? Its mine? Where should the apostrophe go?
They say don’t use clichés, but what are clichés?
Is it ‘between you and me’ or ‘between you and I’?
What happens when you have brackets inside brackets?

This pocket-sized book also provides guidance on acronyms, ambiguity, American-English, bureaucratese, business English, captions, grammar, hyphens, jargon, punctuation, quotations, sexist writing, spelling, writing emails, and much, much more.

What Not to Write was compiled on the basis of the author’s long experience in helping people produce documents written in good English, with the underlying message that simple English is the best English.

Published by Talisman

Also available on Amazon

Sample pages