National Non-Fiction Day Book Review: The Gettysburg Approach to Writing and Speaking like a Professional (Philip A. Yaffe)

Effective writing and speaking are critical for all students and professionals in this challenging and competitive world. Professional level writing and speaking depend on only a handful of easy-to-understand principles. The Gettysburg Approach goes straight to the foundations, defines these principals and explains how to apply them. Through a variety of examples and simple exercises, this exceptional guide will help anyone sharpen their skills and rapidly learn to write and speak clearly, concisely, and persuasively.

I have always been a public speaker and a writing enthusiast, but even I will admit I am an amateur when it comes to speaking and writing with excellence. I have never sought help from a book like this though - but there is always a first for everything right?

Clearly, by not doing so, I am missing out. It turns out, there is a lot of information and help out there available to those who wish to write more concisely and speak persuasively. This is one of those - and not only does this book provides a mountain of useful tricks to be able to clinch that essay or speech, it also explains how and why that particular technique is effective. Where applicable, it gives the reader pros and cons and a wide range of examples to explain and elaborate. It refers to and analyses speeches and extracts, including of course, Abraham Lincoln's famous Gettysburg Address. Apart from that, it gives you tips about everything down to those nitty-gritty little details, including grammar and word usage.

While I expected self-help books to be rather boring, this one is far from it. Consider for instance, its outline. It is not solely presented in paragraph form, but in bullet points and broad headings. Important phrases are highlighted and jump out to catch the reader's attention. The information is well illustrated and discussed in just enough detail to be informative but not boring. Abbreviations are used where most helpful and best of all, exercises and revisions are plentiful for practice and general self test!

While I cannot yet attest as to whether my speaking and writing skills has dramatically improved after reading this book, I can honestly say I have learnt a lot by reading The Gettysburg Approach to Writing and Speaking Like a Professional, not to mention have discovered some neat techniques and most definitely have increased my confidence.

This book will teach you, test you, help you in every step of the way. Brilliant!

Four stars!


Thank you to the author for providing me with a copy for review for -

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