Writing Skills
Getting Your Written Message across
Clearly a colleague has just sent you an email relating to a meeting you're
having in one hour's time. The email is supposed to contain key information
that you need to present, as part of the business case for an important
project.
But there's a problem: The email
is so badly written that you can't find the data you need. There are
misspellings and incomplete sentences, and the paragraphs are so long and
confusing that it takes you three times more than it should to find the
information you want.
As a result, you're
under-prepared for the meeting, and it doesn't go as well as you want it to.
Have you ever faced a situation
similar to this? In today's information overload world, it's vital to
communicate clearly, concisely and effectively. People don't have time to read
book-length emails, and they don't have the patience to scour badly-constructed
emails for "buried" points.
The better your writing skills
are, the better the impression you'll make on the people around you – including
your boss, your colleagues, and your clients. You never know how far these good
impressions will take you!
In this article, we'll look at
how you can improve your writing skills and avoid common mistakes.
Audience and Format
The first step to writing clearly
is choosing the appropriate format. Do you need to send an informal email?
Write a detailed report? Create advertising copy? Or write a formal letter?
The format, as well as your
audience, will define your "writing voice" – that is, how formal or
relaxed the tone should be. For instance, if you write an email to a
prospective client, should it have the same tone as an email to a friend?
Definitely not.
Start by identifying who will
read your message. Is it targeted at senior managers, the entire human
resources team, or a small group of engineers? With everything you write, your
readers, or recipients, should define your tone as well as aspects of the
content.
Composition and Style
Once you know what you're
writing, and for whom you're writing, you actually have to start writing.
A blank, white computer screen is
often intimidating. And it's easy to get stuck because you don't know how to
start. Try these tips for composing and styling your document:
Start with your audience –
Remember, your readers may know nothing about what you're telling them. What do
they need to know first?
Create an outline – This is
especially helpful if you're writing a longer document such as a report,
presentation, or speech. Outlines help you identify which steps to take in
which order, and they help you break the task up into manageable pieces of
information.
Use AIDA – If you're writing
something that must inspire action in the reader, follow the
Attention-Interest-Desire-Action (AIDA) formula. These four steps can help
guide you through the writing process.
Try some empathy – For instance,
if you're writing a sales letter for prospective clients, why should they care
about your product or sales pitch? What's the benefit for them? Remember your
audience's needs at all times.
Use the Rhetorical Triangle – If
you're trying to persuade someone to do something, make sure that you
communicate why people should listen to you, and pitch your message in a way
that engages your audience and present information rationally and coherently.
Our article on the Rhetorical Triangle can help you make your case in the most
effective way.
Identify your main theme – If
you're having trouble defining the main theme of your message, pretend that you
have 15 seconds to explain your position. What do you say? This is likely to be
your main theme.
Use simple language – Unless
you're writing a scholarly article, it's usually best to use simple, direct
language. Don't use long words just to impress people.
Structure
Your document should be as
"reader friendly" as possible. Use headings, subheadings, bullet
points, and numbering whenever possible to break up the text.
After all, what's easier to read
– a page full of long paragraphs, or a page that's broken up into short
paragraphs, with section headings and bullet points? A document that's easy to
scan will get read more often than a document with long, dense paragraphs of
text.
Headers should grab the reader's
attention. Using questions is often a good idea, especially in advertising copy
or reports, because questions help keep the reader engaged and curious.
In emails and proposals, use
short, factual headings and subheadings, like the ones in this article.
Adding graphs and charts is also
a smart way to break up your text. These visual aids not only keep the reader's
eye engaged, but they can communicate important information much more quickly
than text.
Grammatical Errors
You probably don't need us to
tell you that errors in your document will make you look unprofessional. It's
essential to learn grammar properly, and to avoid common mistakes that your
spell checker won't find.
Here are some examples of
commonly misused words:
Affect/effect
"Affect" is a verb
meaning to influence. (Example: The economic forecast will affect our projected
income.)
"Effect" is a noun
meaning the result or outcome. (Example: What is the effect of the proposal?)
Then/than
"Then" is typically an
adverb indicating a sequence in time. (Example: We went to dinner, then we saw
a movie.)
"Than" is a conjunction
used for comparison. (Example: The dinner was more expensive than the movie.)
Your/you're
"Your" is a possessive.
(Example: Is that your file?)
"You're" is a
contraction of "you are." (Example: You're the new manager.)
Note: Also watch out for other
common homophones (words that sound alike but have different spellings and
meanings) – such as their/they're/there, to/too/two, and so on.
Its/it's
"Its" is a possessive.
(Example: Is that its motor?)
"It's" is a contraction
of "It is." (Example: It's often that heavy.) (Yes, it is this way
around!)
Company's/companies (and other
possessives versus plurals)
"Company's" indicates
possession. (Example: The company's trucks hadn't been maintained properly.)
"Companies" is plural.
(Example: The companies in this industry are suffering.)
To learn more about commonly
misused words, misused apostrophes, and other grammatical errors, take our
Bite-Sized Training session on Written Communication.
Tip:
Some of your readers – arguably
an increasing number – won't be perfect at spelling and grammar. They may not
notice if you make these errors. But don't use this as an excuse: there will
usually be people, senior managers in particular, who WILL notice!
Because of this, everything you
write should be of a quality that every reader will find acceptable.
Proofing
The enemy of good proofreading is
speed. Many people rush through their documents, but this is how you miss
mistakes. Follow these guidelines to check what you've written:
Proof your headers and sub
headers – People often skip these and focus on the text alone. Just because
headers are big and bold doesn't mean they're error free!
Read the document out loud – This
forces you to go more slowly, so that you're more likely to catch mistakes.
Use your finger to follow text as
you read – This is another trick that helps you slow down.
Start at the end of your document
– Proofread one sentence at a time, working your way from the end to the
beginning. This helps you focus on errors, not on content.
Key Points
More than ever, it's important to
know how to communicate your point quickly and professionally. Many people
spend a lot of time writing and reading, so the better you are at this form of
communication, the more successful you're likely to be.
Identify your audience before you
start creating your document. And if you feel that there's too much information
to include, create an outline to help organize your thoughts. Learning
grammatical and stylistic techniques will also help you write more clearly; and
be sure to proof the final document. Like most things, the more you write, the
better you're going to be!
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