Making Friends with Good Writing eBook

Business Writing Guide for Administrative Professionals

Clear, polished writing is an essential skill for administrative professionals. Whether writing emails, reports, meeting notes, internal updates, presentations, or executive communications, the way you use language shapes how others perceive your professionalism, credibility, and attention to detail.

Making Friends with Good Writing is a practical e-guide by Barbara McNichol designed to help administrative professionals, business professionals, and workplace communicators strengthen their writing skills and avoid common mistakes in grammar, usage, and style.

In this resource, readers will learn to write with greater clarity by using parallel structure, placing modifiers in the right position, choosing between adjectives and adverbs, and applying capitalization rules more consistently. The e-guide also explains how to create a standard style guide so business communications feel more consistent, reliable, and aligned across an organization.

This e-guide also addresses common areas that can trip up even experienced writers, including when to use “was” versus “were,” how to make nouns and pronouns agree, how to choose between “me,” “myself,” and “I,” and how to avoid sexist language in professional writing. Readers will also explore how metaphors, similes, and chiasmus can add interest and rhythm to writing when used with care.

Additional sections introduce Word Trippers, which help readers understand the difference between often-confused words such as undo and undue, verbalize and vocalize, weary and wary, tenet and tenant, and other common pairings. These short lessons help readers choose the right word when accuracy matters.

In this eBook, readers will learn how to:

• Improve sentence clarity through stronger structure, word order, and grammar choices
• Use modifiers, adjectives, adverbs, nouns, pronouns, and capitalization with greater accuracy
• Create more consistent business communications with a practical style guide
• Avoid common writing mistakes that can weaken credibility or create confusion
• Use inclusive language and stronger word choices in workplace communication
• Add interest to writing through thoughtful use of metaphors, similes, chiasmus, and Word Trippers

This resource is ideal for administrative assistants, executive assistants, office professionals, workplace support professionals, and business communicators who want to write more clearly, communicate more professionally, and strengthen their reputation as excellent communicators.

Please note: This eBook is copyrighted by Barbara McNichol Editorial. It is intended for individual use only and may not be copied, distributed, or shared. Individual copies should be purchased for each reader.

Download your copy today and start building stronger writing habits for clearer, more professional communication.