Anyone requiring a basic introduction to the skills of writing and public speaking should look no further than this third edition of Seely’s guide. Updated and revised since 2005, this informative and practical reference work successfully competes with the many websites on these subjects and holds its own against more specific titles such as The Good Study Guide (Northedge, 2007) published by the Open University for students at college and university, which is both a workbook and a reference book. Handy for keeping on one’s desk, the Guide would provide instant answers to questions about how to write and speak effectively, though a definition of “effectively” is not provided.
John Seely, a freelance editor and author of many books on English and grammar for teachers, has revised, updated and enlarged his Oxford Guide since its first edition was published in 1998, to include digital media for formal and informal communication. Chapter 3 on e-writing now includes more up-to-date information on e-mails together with help with writing for intranets as well as for websites and blogging, while Chapter 24 Research now covers electronic resources, specifically Internet searching. The final revised Chapter 27 Presentation concentrates on layout. The whole of Section D on The Process of Writing has been reworked with the aim of “providing a more thorough and […] realistic perspective on the process of writing”.
The book is arranged in four sections: A: Communicating in Everyday Life; B: Getting the Message Across; C: Communication Tools; and D: The Process of Writing. Chapters 2-9 cover writing letters, job applications, curricula vitae, essay writing, etc.; Chapters 10-14 are on presentation skills, for example speaking in public; Chapters 15-21 are on English and grammar; and the final six chapters are on researching, writing and editing. The format of the chapters as explained clearly and visually in the Introduction is: Summary; Text; You Try boxes (though not in Chapters 3-9, 12, 19-20 and 24); Cross-references and Guidelines, which contain the main points of each chapter as a series of numbered guidelines for the purpose of quick reference. Users of the Oxford Guide, who are short of time, could simply go to the end of each chapter and study these. There is a short index and also a very useful Glossary giving exact page references to entries containing brief explanations of English grammar such as acronyms and conjuncts, together with answers to the You Try questions. One of the most helpful sections for all of us, even those very experienced in these skills, starts on page 251 headed Words Sometimes Confused, for example affect/effect and discreet/discrete and many others, all especially helpful for those coming new to the subject.
The book has a clear, attractive layout with lots of white space and diagrams and is printed in blue ink, which is good for people with dyslexia, but it would have been even better on cream paper rather than on the bright white paper.
Cited on the cover as the “world’s most trusted reference books”, the Oxford Guide is perhaps somewhat too ambitious and tries too hard to cram everything in to one volume, though this should give it a wider appeal. It could be used by both native speakers and by those for whom English is not their first language, as well as blossoming ELT teachers, students, academics and those applying for jobs after leaving further or higher education. So if someone was only buying one book on this subject, then this would be good value at £15, but anyone needing more detailed information on these topics would need to refer to other specialist works such as How to be Brilliant at Public Speaking: Any Audience, Any Situation (Lloyd-Hughes, 2011) and the third edition of Oxford A-Z of Grammar and Punctuation (Seely, 2013).
