Writing That Works: How to Communicate Effectively in Business

A compact, practical guide to every form of business writing you will encounter in your career. Kenneth Roman and Joel Raphaelson, both former leaders at Ogilvy & Mather, pack decades of real-world communication experience into a slim volume that covers emails, memos, letters, reports, proposals, presentations, resumes, and speeches.

Why This One

If On Writing Well teaches you the principles of clear writing, Writing That Works shows you how to apply those principles to specific business formats. Roman and Raphaelson were advertising executives who understood that every piece of writing competes for attention, and that most business writing loses that competition because it is too long, too vague, or too self-important.

The book is organized by format, so you can jump directly to the chapter on whatever you need to write next. Each chapter is loaded with concrete examples of good and bad writing, with clear explanations of what makes the difference. The advice is timeless even though some of the specific examples reflect an earlier era of business communication.

What to Expect

At 193 pages, this is a quick read you can finish in an afternoon and keep on your desk as a reference. The tone is direct and no-nonsense, exactly what you would expect from two people who spent their careers making words work. This is the most purely practical book on the list.