How To Improve Your Lousy Writing Skills In The Workplace
Posted by Essay Help on July 10, 2009If there’s one important reason why you need to compose effectively in the workplace, it is this: the quality of your writing imprints a lasting impression on the reader. This reader may be your boss, a client, or a person who is ready to make a billion dollar business deal with you.
Have you ever read a poorly-written document that made you lose interest right away? It was so poorly-written that you lost belief in the author and asked yourself why the author was symptom your time? How about those junk e-mails that creep into your junk box like annoying cockroaches? You know the ones I’m referring to: the ones pitching vitamins, code, and activity aids. These e-mails are the biggest showcase of writing blunders, stricken to death with grammar mistakes, misspellings, and sloppy sentences. I doubt these e-mails pull a sale because their poor writing communication immediately alienates the reader.
What impression does your writing leave on your boss, clients, or co-workers? Does your writing alienate readers, cause you to lose sales or clients, or cost you job promotions? Or does your writing build streams of loyal readers, increase sales for the company, and help you earn cardinal figures a year at your job?
Whatsoever identify of writing you do in the workplace, always know this reality: readers believe the quality of your writing reflects your skills, activity ethics, and integrity as a person. If you compose eloquently, clearly, and lively, the reader trusts you and you are able to build rapport quickly. If your writing is sloppy, disorganized, and riddled with errors, the reader assumes the rest of your activity is flawed, your activity ethics are flawed, and perhaps as a person you are flawed. Why should this reader act his time reading the rest of your junk or even do business with you?
This article provides fail-safe strategies to help refine your writing and help you to communicate with clarity, simplicity, and impact so you will never compose junk again. You will learn five masterful stairs to guide you in planning, writing, and refining an article; and you will learn how to avoid common writing mistakes.
AIM! FIRE! FIRE!
To become a superior writer, your first chore is to establish your aim.
Yiddish novelist, dramatist and essayist, Sholem Asch, once said, “Writing comes more easily if you have something to have.”
What message do you deprivation to convey with your writing?
To establish your aim, ask yourself:
1) “Why am I writing this document?”
2) “What do I deprivation to communicate?”
3) “Do I deprivation to inform, educate, report, persuade, challenge, or entertain?”
Developing your aim will help you to adopt the best writing communication for your reader. For example, an educational document will likely be more formal than one written for entertaining.
CONNECT WITH YOUR READERS
To compose effectively, you need to connect strongly with your readers. Ask yourself:
1) “For whom am I writing this? Will I be writing for colleagues, my program, my group of employees, or our clients?”
2) “How much information do my readers need?”
3) “How familiar are my readers with the issue?”
4) “How much time do my readers have? Would my readers prefer a abbreviated, compact presentation of facts and statistics, or more narration and exposition?”
Knowing your audience will allow you to compose content in a artifact that appeals to your readers.
Attribute YOUR DOCUMENT
You know your aim. You know the people who will likely read your document. Now plan your document. What information will it contain? What information will most likely grab the reader and hold their interests? What points do you need to get across? Start with a rough outline of ideas. So go finished the outline and add more information and more detail. An outline will create the artifact for your document. Presently enough your writing will come more easily, quickly, and with greater clarity.
Compose WHAT YOU KNOW BEST
At this arrange, read over your outline and compose the first draft. Establish the main idea of the document and activity your argument end-to-end. If a blank achromatic page glares back at you like headlights, just start writing on whatsoever issue you know best. According to American novelist Jack London, “You can’t act for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” Don’t anxiety about the film if the ideas come to you out of order. You can cut and paste later.
Prolix WEIGHT LOSS
If you have time, block away from the document. Come back thereto later with a fresh mind. Now add material where needed. Clipping away excess sections. Refine the matter to communicate what you deprivation to have. Remember: less is more. Attempt not to repeat ideas. Repetition, unless necessary, is boring for the reader. Keep the piece moving along. Consume a lively pace. Progress finished your points efficiently.
The following sections address any of the most common writing problems. Consume these tips to compose more clearly, effectively, and lively.
I.) PUNCTUATION
a) Apostrophes
Do not consume an apostrophe in the possessive form of “it.”
Incorrect: Our department submitted it’s reports for 2005 last week.
Correct: Our department submitted its reports for 2005 last week.
Do not consume apostrophes in the possessive forms “his,” “hers,” and “ours.”
Incorrect: The pane office is her’s.
Correct: The pane office is hers.
Do not consume apostrophes in plural nouns.
Incorrect: How many new computer’s are we getting?
Correct: How many new computers are we getting?
b) Commas
Do not connect cardinal complete sentences with a comma.
Incorrect: The meeting was cancelled, I finished my activity early.
Correct: The meeting was cancelled, so I finished my activity early.
Correct: Since the meeting was cancelled, I finished my activity early.
II.) MECHANICS
a) Split Infinitives
Do not insert words between “to” and the infinitive form of a verb.
Incorrect: I was told we needed to somewhat change the deadline.
Correct: I was told we needed to change the deadline somewhat.
III.) SPELLING
a) “A lot” is always cardinal words.
Incorrect: I have alot of activity to do.
Correct: I have a lot of activity to do.
b) “To” is a function morpheme often old before the infinitive form of a verb (to go).
c) “Too” is an adverb that means “excessively” (also difficult).
d) “Two” denotes the number 2.
Incorrect: This file cabinet is to heavy for me to move.
Correct: This file cabinet is also heavy for me to move.
e) “There” is an adverb indicating a place (over thither).
f) “Their” is a possessive morpheme that shows ownership (their computers).
g) “They’re” is the contraction form of “they are.”
Incorrect: Thither results for this quarter were excellent.
Correct: Their results for this quarter were excellent.
Incorrect: Their employed real hard today.
Correct: They’re employed real hard today.
IV.) Communication
a) Condemn Difference
To compose more lively, vary syntax. Consume alternate distance of beginning, and combine abbreviated sentences to create different condemn lengths.
Before:
I organized the files for all the new accounts this week. So I created a more efficient labeling group. I color-coded everything. I made careful all paper files had been documented electronically. I put these files in the empty file cabinet.
After:
This week I organized the files for the new accounts and created a more efficient color-coded labeling group. After I documented all paper files electronically, I put these files in the empty file cabinet.
V.) ACTIVE Expression vs. PASSIVE Expression
The English language has cardinal “voices”: active expression (the case performs an action); and passive expression (the case is acted upon). In business communication, all good writers compose in active expression. Lazy writers compose in passive expression. Writing in active expression shortens your sentences and makes your writing channel more direct and formal.
Examples:
PASSIVE: The recipe book is read by her.
ACTIVE: She reads the recipe book.
PASSIVE: The radio announcement should be listened to by everyone.
ACTIVE: Everyone should listen to the radio announcement.
PASSIVE: The photo is being appropriated by the photographer.
ACTIVE: The photographer is action the photo.
HELPFUL RESOURCES
To learn more about fixing common writing mistakes, check out The Electronic Writing Course ( .ElectronicWritingCourse.com ). It’s a program that teaches the basics of good writing and editing. If you deprivation to check your document against 36,000 communication and usance mistakes, check out StyleWriter ( .StyleWriter-USA.com ). It’s a communication and usance Plain English checker. If you deprivation to compose more lively and creatively, check out WhiteSmoke Code ( .WhiteSmokeSoftware.com ). It’s a program that fixes and enriches your matter.
If you follow these guidelines, you’ll act yourself from writing lousy in the workplace. Your writing will be lively, clear, and concise, and you will build rapport with readers. Perhaps it’s now time to e-mail your boss a perfectly-written e-mail requesting a salary raise?
Tags: business writing, freelance writing, grammar, writing