Book excerpt: Yes, you can improve your writing without memorising endless rules, perusing checklists of do's and don'ts or revisiting the lessons of secondary school. Quick & Painless Business Writing reveals secrets that will eliminate business-writing phobias and faux pas and help you create outstanding documents that get optimal results. First, you'll learn that grammar is not a collection of stagnant rules you'd better follow (or else), but an ever-changing set of principles with plenty of choices. Then you'll discover secrets about writing your English teachers never told you: the secret power of nouns, the destructive force of innocent-seeming verbs and the way sentence structure can elicit certain responses. You'll happily replace what you learned about structure with an altogether new understanding of how to open, develop and close your messages. Even better, you'll learn how to build a cohesive message quickly, with little need for rewriting.