I read this book in its entirety for an intellectual property class, and it helped my understanding of the subject greatly. That said, it's not an ideI read this book in its entirety for an intellectual property class, and it helped my understanding of the subject greatly. That said, it's not an ideal textbook for a university class for two reasons.
First, it's outdated. The 5th edition was written before the America Invents Act (Patent Reform Act) was signed into law, so it has a lot of outdated info about patents in it. The US is no longer a "first to invent" country, it is a "first to file" for example. The chapters on software patents, business methods, and the internet are all as outdated as a 5-year-old computer. No mention of digital currency, online legal services, or other things a contemporary manager needs to know.
Second, it approaches law developmentally. As an engineer taking a law class, I'm not going to be tested on the history of how the law developed. I will be tested on how to apply the law. I don't need to read outdated, long-winded passages about how the courts finally settled on a way to define what can be patented, I just need to know what can be patented. For the most part, the book puts this applicable information in text boxes throughout, but it could do better.
It would also help if after every case brief, writ, opinion, etc... there was a text box outlining what was important about this particular case, and how it affects case law. It would be an easy way to get info at a glance when referencing. Overall, a good book for its time, but outdated and written more for budding lawyers than engineers who haven't "read" a textbook since high school. ...more
The best article is "The Necessary Art of Persuasion", which is an excellent perspective on leadership. A few other articles stood out, but about halfThe best article is "The Necessary Art of Persuasion", which is an excellent perspective on leadership. A few other articles stood out, but about half the articles are forgettable, and one or two of those are not good at all. Still, as far as business anthologies goes, this is pretty good. Just a bit dated, but it's not really noticeable. ...more
Good writing is essential to success in business. Brian Green’s HBR Guide to Better BusinI had to write a review on this book for a class:
Introduction
Good writing is essential to success in business. Brian Green’s HBR Guide to Better Business Writing clearly explains the steps to communicate successfully through writing. This review will serve to as a short primer and critical analysis of this work. Four sections, consisting of twenty-one chapters, makeup the book; additionally six appendixes accompany the text. In general, each chapter starts with a writing concept, why it is important, and some guidelines on how to apply it. It then applies this concept to an example text, which makes the text more communicable, clear, and concise. All chapters end by recapping the main points of the chapter.
Thesis
Green’s thesis is that the key to effective business writing is to communicate purposefully, clearly, and concisely. This is evident in each section of the book, which all serve to communicate his main points. First, the writer should deliver information quickly and clearly. Second, they should know their purpose and communicate it in a straightforward manner. Finally, they should avoid common mistakes that make writing difficult to understand, too long, or put a barrier between the audience and message. Green comprehensively applies these points in the final section on common forms of business writing.
Assessment
All main points are applicable and articulated well, and directly support the thesis. Quick and clear information delivery is essential in the business environment; this means writing should be logical, economical, and easy to understand. Green argues that clarity is achieved by taking a stand, “When you’re forthright enough to take a position or recommend a course of action” (Green 2012, p 43). Writing without taking a stand leads to an unclear statement and ineffective use of the reader’s time.
His second point, a writer requires having a purpose and should communicate it in a straightforward and plainspoken manner is paramount to successful writing. This addresses the “Why” of the writing, which is a question every business seeks to answer. Green suggest considering purpose before writing, and to ask continuously if each sentence is advancing that purpose. With the purpose established, the next step is to state it simply and clearly. A business that can do this can effectively communicate with its audience.
Finally, there are things to avoid so that writing communicates effectively. With cross-functional teams and technological innovation in the workplace, it is important to avoid jargon, wordiness, and hyper-formalities. Green advocates using “we,” “our,” and “your” instead of “I” to add a personal touch to writing. Additionally, writing should be in the active voice to reduce word count and increase clarity. Acronyms should be avoided, but contractions should be used to avoid stuffiness. All of the points are useful tools for effective writing, and should be used liberally in the business environment. Green does an excellent job explaining why these points make writing effective and how to employ them.
Strengths and Weaknesses
The main strength of this book is that it “practices what it preaches,” meaning it communicates each topic clearly and concisely. Each chapter is to the point and succinct; there is no difficult language or hyper-formality to slow communication between the author and reader. The recap at the end of each chapter helps reinforce everything discussed and along with the appendixes, serves as a great place to look over when referencing the book.
In general, the examples do an excellent job of demonstrating a concept, however sometimes the “before” examples come off as too poorly written to be believable (this example is then made effective as an “after” example). Also, the chapters on illustrations and appraisals leave much to be desired; the first refers the reader to another text, and the second isn’t much more than a list of phrases. Despite a few weaknesses, this book’s strengths easily carry it, making this usually boring topic into a page-turner.
Survey
The author does an excellent job of covering a wide array of topics and fitting them together in a logical and natural manner. The first section helps answer the questions of “why we write,” “who is our audience,” “how to start,” and “what to write.” Doing so, it covers the Madman-Architect-Carpenter-Judge process of writing. He ends this section discussing the use of graphics in writing.
The focus of the next section is writing development. Discussing techniques to better clarify, summarize, and tighten the prose. Green follow this by discussing the importance of being plainspoken, using chronological sequencing, and having good continuity. He ends by explaining why proper grammar is important, and why critical feedback from peers is an excellent way to improve writing.
The penultimate section is two chapters that advocate the proper use of pronouns and contractions and suggests avoiding acronyms and improper tone. The final section addressed popular forms of writing, using all the concepts discussed. E-mail, business letters, memos, reports, and appraisals are covered, usually in detail and with examples.
Comparisons
“If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter,” by Blaise Pascal often comes to mind when reading this book. Pascal was a great writer, and it’s apt to compare the techniques of this book against that of great writers and prose. In all respects, this book compares favorably to other similar writings. One thing that’s great about this book is that it’s not afraid to suggest breaking with tradition. Green has no problem defending the use of contractions or less than formal writing to communicate effectively. He’s also inline with much contemporary business theory. Here’s a quote from another business book: “…Only the Wright brothers were able to inspire those around them…Only the Wright brothers started with Why.” (Sinek, 2009). It’s impressive that the first chapter of this book is about Why, and how that’s where you start. Compared to other books on writing, this book is shorter, simpler, and easier to read, not to mention inline with modern business theory. A much better and quicker read than a traditional textbook.
References
Garner, B. A. (2012). HBR guide to better business writing. Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business Review Press.
Pascal, B. (1965). Les provinciales; ou, Les lettres écrites par Louis de Montalte à un provincial de ses amis et aux RR. PP. jésuites. (Cognet, L., Trans.) Paris: Éditions Garnier frères.
Sinek, S. (2009). Start with why: how great leaders inspire everyone to take action. New York: Portfolio. ...more
If I find an error in a textbook, I make a note of it so I can let my professors know; at this point my textbook is so riddled with "error here" Post-If I find an error in a textbook, I make a note of it so I can let my professors know; at this point my textbook is so riddled with "error here" Post-It notes, it would have been easier to mark the pages without errors. If, like me, you are being held hostage by the textbook-industrial complex propagated by your school, here are a few things to look out for:
- Incorrect mathematics: I have no idea how this book has the gall to say that "5292+270+246=6050" [Example 2-8 page 21]. I must have missed that identity in math class. - Internal reference errors: The text will prompt you to look at a certain figure to illustrate its point, and the figure will have nothing to do with the example. It's like they assumed nobody was reading [Figure 4.6 pg 112]. - I have a sneaking suspicion that not all the answers to the odd questions in the back are correct, but I can't prove it. Maybe I'm just too stupid to get the answers in the back, but there are literally questions just asking to count things, and the answers in the back don't agree with my counting. - Made-up equations. This is highlighted in the text as equation to know for "lower-confidence bounds around a mean": [image] WTF is that? It's like some sort of post- apocalyptic dystopian math yet to be conjured up [Equation 8-8 pg 287] - They mess up the fundamentals. I'm sorry, but a Continuous Uniform Distribution is not modeled by f(x) =(b-a) from a Any statistician would flip their shit over that proclamation. [Equation 4-6 pg 116]
The above is just a sample of the many errors I found. I usually learn by teaching myself from text, but when they screwed up the central limit theorem, I lost all trust in this text and actually had to go to lectures to figure it out.
Beyond the errors I listed above (there are plenty more), I found it difficult to follow along with a lot of examples in this book. Some of the exercises are completely pointless or woefully underexplained. Often they would introduce an equation to use and say "We'll leave it to the reader to derive this on their own as an exercise", which baffles me. If I could derive statistical principles on my own, I don't think I'd be taking an entry level statistics class... I'd probably be with mad stat bitches flaunting all the swag I got by selling poorly written statistics textbooks.
If you have to use this book, I hope you have a good professor. Otherwise, I recommend cheating. ...more
This is the most challenging book I have read... taking a little over 8 years to complete. It was a personal struggle to read and try to comprehend; aThis is the most challenging book I have read... taking a little over 8 years to complete. It was a personal struggle to read and try to comprehend; and whereas I succeeded in the former, I failed in the latter. I can't review this book based on the genius concepts I could not grasp, so my review will be about the physical experience of reading it and its Wikipedia article.
There are a few reasons why this book is difficult to read: 1. The book is not available in the electronic format, this is the first barrier to success. 2. This book weighs about 2.4 pounds, so when you fall asleep and it falls on your face, it knocks out what you did comprehend. 3. Carrying this book in public will immediately ostracise you as some sort of nerd or pretentious show-off.
The subject matter is an intense, tangled, organized mess of math, music, art, and characters from Alice in Wonderland thrown in for good measure. The 777-page book's range is even wider, exploring self-references systems ("strange loops"), artificial intelligence, metaphysics, and I don't even know what else but I'm sure it's profound.
That said, even an idiot like me found brief glimpses of absolute beauty in the thoughts and concepts discussed. Furthermore, never did I feel like I was reading an outdated 40-year old non-fiction book, it felt contemporary and still ahead of its time narratively. And as much as I hated reading and trying to understand this book...I might start again.
How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. How do you make an elephant taste good? Acquire good taste..?
Highly recommend to only those looking to be challenged.
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