Communication

by Judith Martin

Book Overview

With the failure of schools, families, and other traditional social institutions to teach the basic rules of comportment, "Miss Manners" steps into the breach with this essential new series of "Basic Training" manuals. In this volume, she explores communications, answering all the vexing questions of what to do, when, and how to do it correctly. 192 pp. Author interviews. National radio publicity. National on-line publicity. National print ads. 50,000...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0517706733
• ISBN13: 9780517706732
• Release Date: December 1996
• Publisher: Crown Publishing Group (NY)
• Length: 179 Pages
• Weight: 0.71 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Still remarkably relevant, and with the classic Martin wit

Yes, five stars -- I loved it. This and other "Basic Communications" books were a series of modestly sized volumes with major impact, written by Judith ("Miss Manners") Martin and published around the turn-of-the-millennium. This one has aged remarkably little because the etiquette problems of kind and effective communications are always with us, and even the transitional technologies of that time are still with us, and still "transition-ing" so to speak. So what if 7.75 by 10.5 inch formatted personal stationery is not as favored as it was in 1999? There's plenty of enduring value here. What matters are Martin's sage advice that encourages the reader to think for him- or herself, her great sense of humor, and the satisfaction of reading a truly well-wrought short book with some of the Q&A that made "Miss Manners" America's leading etiquette expert of the late 20th Century. Yes, I'm a fan, but I believe anyone would rate this at least four stars. For you budding antiquarians: Every volume in this series I've encountered is svelte in size, hardbound, and with an intact d.j. will last a lifetime. Gentle Readers: Go for it! ~ a.s.

entertaining, informative, and wise

In this delightful little book, Miss Manners regales us with her opinions on the etiquette of telephones, emails, faxes, and letters. She provides the proper salutations and cloings for business and personal letters, tells us how to politely rebuff those who would use our telephones to run our lives, and reminds us that sometimes a handwritten note is necessary - and even when it isn't necessary, it's often best. The book is full of her usual witticisms and sardonic responses to reader letters, and it's a joy to read.

Grace us with your wisdom, Oh Sapient One!

Miss Manners covers the various forms of modern communication -- email, FAX, answering machines, engraved invitations, face-to-face meetings -- and reminds us of when and how various sentiments are properly delivered. In her inimitable style, mixing short essays with reader questions and her infallible answers, she makes this puzzling topic crystal clear, and yes, you do have to handwrite those thank you notes.

Oh, to be as wise as Dear Miss Manners!

For a lady whose yearns for the Victorian era, Miss Manners addresses the latest of cutting-edge communication technology with her trademark wisdom, common sense and rapier-like wit. If you've read as many of Judith Martin's books as I have, some of the information given here is repetitive. It is, however, information that will never let you down in a social situation or leave you feeling guilty or ashamed of the way you acted if you follow her guidelines, so it definitely bears repeating, especially for those who suffer from Genetic Social Nerdism. Miss Manners is not only absolutely right, all the time, but she will explain to you WHY she is right, and you will have to give up in the end and admit that she is the ultimate authority.

Generally worthwhile...

Witty and readable, this book addresses a great many communication dilemmas -- especially those posed by new technologies such as email, mobile phones, and pagers. And in the middle of this, Martin still finds time to tell us how to have our personal stationery monogrammed (in case we ever need to.)As a professional grammar nerd, I wish there'd been some reference to the effect that spelling and grammar have on one's credibility -- but I suppose that even the pickiest etiquette expert couldn't class "R U OK" as *rude*, precisely.And why on *earth* does Martin persist in condemning engraved/printed birth announcements as a modern vulgarism, when Emily Post approved them wholeheartedly in 1924?

Timely, insightful, readable, entertaining, and helpful.

When I first perused this book, and saw the scope of innovations in communications that it deals with(answering machines,fax machines, e-mail, pagers), I realized that it was really what the world needs. We are getting more and more communications devices all the time, and we each tend to think that we can do anything that technology enables us to do. We all need and want to exchange messages with others, and whereas we are eager to receive some, others we can do without. To fulfill these desires, we visit our local Radio Shack. However, techology, instead of enabling us, has a way of complicating our lives, and we also forget the perennial principles of decency which do not change with every advance in technology. Miss Manners help us to live by these principles in a world in which technology threatens to become our master.