| Preface | vii |
| Introduction | viii |
Part I | The Million-Dollar Memo | |
1. | The Secret of the Million-Dollar Memo | 1 |
| How to communicate, not just inform | 2 |
| How find--and fill--your reader's needs | 2 |
| What's so important about a memo? | 4 |
2. | Changing Your Approach | 6 |
| To write a memo: the old way | 6 |
| To write a memo: the new way | 7 |
| The "need" test | 9 |
3. | The Mechanics of Making a Memo | 11 |
| To write--or to dictate | 11 |
| The word processor as memo producer | 12 |
| Appearance is everything--at first | 13 |
Part II | The $2.98 Memo | |
4. | A Typical $2.98 Memo | 16 |
5. | Business Language | 17 |
| Why people use it | 17 |
| How business language holds you back | 18 |
Part III | The Enemies of a Million-Dollar Memo | |
6. | How to Lighten Your Language | 21 |
7. | Forsake Phony Fancies | 22 |
8. | No More Nounery | 24 |
| Noun clusters | 24 |
| Verbs turned into nouns | 25 |
| Nouns turned into verbs | 26 |
| Why we fall victim to nounery | 26 |
| How to replace nounery | 27 |
9. | Turn the Passive Voice Around | 28 |
| Why the passive voice doesn't work | 29 |
| How to avoid the passive voice | 30 |
10. | Weed Out Wasted Words | 31 |
11. | Clear Up Glaring Grammar Gaffes | 34 |
| Unclear agreement | 34 |
| Unparallel constructions | 35 |
| Comma blunders | 35 |
Part IV | Techniques of a Million-Dollar Memo | |
12. | Phase 1: Think Like Your Reader | 39 |
| Language is not a common ground | 39 |
| How to get into your reader's head | 41 |
13. | Phase 2: Write From the Right Side of Your Brain | 42 |
| Writing versus editing | 42 |
| How to write freely | 43 |
| How to learn through writing | 43 |
| A writing exercise | 43 |
| Writing the new way | 44 |
14. | Phase 3: Switch to the Left Side, and Edit | 46 |
| Shaping your manuscript | 46 |
| Finding the unifying force | 46 |
| Meeting your reader's needs | 47 |
| Effective endings | 48 |
| Making your memo good to read--two checklists | 49 |
15. | Tone--Your Attitude, in Writing | 51 |
| How to identify the tone of your memos | 51 |
| How to control your tone | 51 |
16. | Style--You in Your Writing | 53 |
| Five techniques for letting your style shine through | 53 |
17. | Punctuation--The Voice Behind the Writing | 55 |
| Commas | 55 |
| The enclosers | 56 |
| Brackets | 56 |
| Parentheses | 57 |
| Quotation marks | 58 |
| The connectors | 58 |
| The semicolon and dash | 59 |
| The colon | 59 |
| The apostrophe | 59 |
| The hyphen | 59 |
18. | Spelling--Write It Right | 61 |
19. | Prepositions--Little Words Mean a Lot | 63 |
| Preposition combos that cause confusion | 63 |
| Words that take only one preposition | 65 |
20. | Metaphors--Don't Mix Them | 67 |
21. | The Follow-up--The Final Flourish | 69 |
Part V | Other Applications of Your Million-Dollar Memo Skills | |
22. | How to Write a Nicely Spoken Letter | 72 |
23. | How to Write a Letter for a Job | 74 |
| Making your own professional profile | 75 |
| Your letter of application--the gentle art of persuasion | 75 |
24. | How to Write a Complaint Letter That Gets Results | 77 |
| Write a mad-rag | 77 |
| Complain with style: seven rules | 79 |
| Putting the rules into practice | 82 |
| What to do if you still get no response | 86 |
25. | How--and When--to Write for a Raise | 87 |
| Making your value known | 87 |
| Putting it in writing | 87 |
| The power of enthusiasm | 88 |
| Stating your needs | 88 |
26. | How to Write a Technical Memo | 90 |
| Technical booby traps | 90 |
| The search for elegant simplicity--in four steps | 91 |
27. | How to Write a Highly Readable Technical Report | 95 |
| The pyramid of value | 97 |
| The title | 98 |
| Recommendations | 98 |
| Table of contents | 98 |
| Findings | 98 |
| Discussion | 99 |
| A discussion checklist | 100 |
| Common problems with reports | 100 |
| The appendix | 101 |
Part VI | The Million-Dollar Method in Brief | |
28. | Think Differently | 103 |
| Think: I want to talk to someone | 103 |
| Think: I want to communicate | 104 |
| Think like your reader | 105 |
29. | Write Differently | 107 |
| Write freely and ceaselessly | 107 |
| Find your unifying force | 107 |
30. | Make It Clear and Simple | 109 |
| Write what you mean | 109 |
| Use action verbs | 110 |
| Use verbs instead of nouns | 111 |
| Use prepositions instead of prepositional phrases | 112 |
| Write English | 112 |
| Avoid redundancies | 113 |
| Cut out cliches | 114 |
| The final check | 115 |
| Epilogue: Language for the Fun of It | 117 |