The Manager's Communication Toolbox

What Is Good Writing?

“A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.”

—Author Thomas Mann

In This Chapter

• Why you should write well.
• What a manager needs to know to write knowledgeably and persuasively.

The French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, who controlled nearly all of Europe for a brief time in the early 19^th century, led an army made up of an estimated 600,000 men. Among them was a young corporal who has gone down in history with the unfortunate nickname of “Napoleon’s Idiot.” Whenever Napoleon wrote an order to his commanders or his troops, he would read it to the corporal before issuing it. Bonaparte ...