Exercise books on American tree rewritten as part of 18's work? (10)
I believe the answer is:
pentameter
'part of 18's work?' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both related to communication as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?
'exercise books on american tree rewritten' is the wordplay.
'exercise' becomes 'pe' (Physical Education).
'books' becomes 'nt' (New Testament).
'on american' becomes 'am' (abbreviation in some contexts. I am not sure about the 'on' bit.**).
'rewritten' indicates anagramming the letters.
'tree' is an anagram of 'eter'.
'pe'+'nt'+'am'+'eter'='PENTAMETER'
'as' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for pentameter that I've seen before include "Friar Laurence's usual line" , "Typical Shakespearean line" , "Verse line of 20 ac feet" , "Line of five metric feet" .)