Power Talk: Using Language to Build Authority and Influence
McGinty taught the politics of language at Harvard and does workshops and seminars nationwide as head of McGinty Consulting. Her book focuses on workplace communications. She looks at both listening and talking and teaches readers how to use language skills to advance in the business world. She covers e-mail, voice mail, meetings, and up and down communications, and she also considers changing styles as people move up the corporate ladder. Offering lots of lists and examples, her book is easy and fun to read. Salamensky earned her Ph.D. at Harvard and is currently an assistant professor of English at SUNY. Her book brings together a wide range of writers from such areas as communications and cultural criticism to look at the concept of talk. What it means to talk, how we define ourselves though our language skills, what makes talk funny (comedy), and cultural differences in communication are some of the many topics considered. The book is organized in chapters, some of them essays by single authors and others conversations between two experts. The information on each contributor in the note section would have been nice at the chapter heads. This book is more technical than McGinty's, but both books have extensive bibliographies and notes ("gossip" in the case of Talk Talk Talk). Power Talk will be popular in public library business collections, while Talk Talk Talk belongs in university libraries and larger public libraries. Lisa J. Cihlar, Monroe P.L., WICopyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.