Pyramid Principle, The Paperback – March 16, 2021

I bought this book around the time I started working as an ERP Consultant at Google. This is the best "how to write for business" book I have read. I have read this book twice and will probably read it many more times. I used what I learned in this book to write business requirements documents (BRD) and functional and technical documents (FDTD). The overriding concept is "logic in writing" and the author shows how we think in a "pyramid structure" and why our writing should have this pyramid structure. The second part of the book goes into "logic in thinking " which is also great though a little dense.This book is worth the money you spend on it - it SHOULD BE REQUIRED READING FOR EVERY CONSULTANT and PRODUCT MANAGER.Along with Strunk and White's Elements of Style this book is a perfect one-two punch for anyone who wants to read 2 books on how to write for business.

The difference between merely getting by and making an impact in your writing is totally dependent upon a few key strategies that you take: Barbara Mento's "The Pyramid Principle" shows you how to structure your thoughts before writing. It is not a style manual and it is not an easy book to read. You will really have to "want" it. It is about the thinking process that should precede writing. I am the first to admit that thinking is a difficult business, but it is worth it. Yes, I had to read the book 3 times before the light bulb came on. Is this book worth your time? It depends. Do you want to be a better writer or not?That is a good book which is opened with expectation and closed in profit. ~ Amos Bronson Alcott ~

A once-hot and now unappreciated classic, one of the best how-to writing guides for technical and persuasive works in any language. Minto wove together the requirements that logic imposes on the structure and format of argumentative and technical written works. If you try the Minto techniques you will find that not only is your writing more persuasive, but that her techniques transform how you express yourself verbally, and you become much more effective in person. It is a shame that this is no longer in print; it really is best to highlight the heck out of this book.

Great logic ideas how to structure your notes, mails or long essays! However language used and complicated examples given to explain ideas make getting the concepts very frustrating.The book describes very good basics how to structure your ideas - starting with story telling concepts, putting ideas first, applying pyramid concept to summarize your points and support main ideas etc.On the other hand the author loves using not frequently used words and jargon combined with excessive use of passive voice. This makes comprehending the ideas very difficult, especially for me, non-native English speaker. On top of these difficulties, examples used in the book are mostly way too technical that just understanding what is it all about completely distracts from absorbing the idea. I think if the ideas of the book is targeted to general public, language and examples should be so understandable that the reader easily focuses just on the main concepts.In summary, the book is full of great ideas very useful for any writer. Just the difficult wording makes you re-read the text couple of times to get to the roots. And be prepared for tough examples...

I really like this book because it goes deep into its topic areas.It does not just say "you need three reasons" - it says what order they should be in, how they should be associated, etc.Really its a game changer of a book - that being said - a few more exercises would be nice as you really have to work hard to practice the advice in this book.either way - still a 5 star book - I highly recommend it

Great book. What a shame, its not available on Kindle

I would highly recommend this book to anyone that need to improve their professional writing skills. It is well structured with many useful examples to illustrate the main points. However, I believe that it could have been shorter as the bulk of the illustrations were redundant and unnecessary - particularly in the latter half of the book.

1. The author presents information in a very complicated way. He prevalently uses long sentences that are not very readable; uses words that are seldomly used in everyday life.2. The author addressed people with he/him, excluding anyone else!3. Overall I find this book to be hard to follow and does not provide the help I am looking for.