This book is part of the Scott, Foresman ProCom series, which has been created “to bring the very latest thinking about human communication to the attention of working professionals.” Getting the Job Done offers practical solutions to office-related communication problems. This book is aimed at persons who entered the business world some years ago at the “secretarial level,” and now, because of the technological revolution, are finding themselves unable to communicate effectively within their organizations. Johnson's aim, then, as expressed in her first chapter, is to provide those who are exceptionally well experienced in their work with practical guidelines for surviving — in fact, for living well — in the information age.

This book is aimed at persons in the work force who want to acquire good writing skills in order to “increase their chances for success.” The first section, entitled “Writing and the Successful Manager,” emphasizes that all managers should be concerned with creating an image of success and looks at how writing can either enhance or detract from that image. This section also offers helpful guidelines for determining when to write and when not to write, and suggests other options for communicating. The final chapter of this section is a brief overview of the four stages in the process of a major writing project. This section seemed rather premature at this point in the book, before a more thorough analysis of writing projects. The four stages — exploring, planning, drafting, and revising — are crucial to any writing project, but for the discussion of them to have maximum effectiveness in this book, it needs to be more carefully focused on business writing situations.