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HOW TO IMPROVE
YOUR LOUSY WRITING SKILLS IN THE WORKPLACE
by Brian
Konradt
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If there’s one important reason
why you need to write 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 trust in
the author and asked yourself why the author was wasting your time? How about
those junk e-mails that sneak into your junk box like annoying cockroaches? You
know the ones I’m referring to: the ones pitching vitamins, software, and
sex 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 style 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 six
figures a year at your job?
Whatever type of writing you do in the
workplace, always know this reality: readers believe the quality of your
writing reflects your skills, work ethics, and integrity as a person. If you
write 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 work is flawed, your work
ethics are flawed, and perhaps as a person you are flawed. Why should this
reader waste 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 write junk again. You will learn five masterful steps 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
superb writer, your first task is to establish your aim.
Yiddish
novelist, dramatist and essayist, Sholem Asch, once said, “Writing comes
more easily if you have something to say.”
What message do you
want to convey with your writing?
To establish your aim, ask yourself:
1) “Why am I writing this document?”
2)
“What do I want to communicate?”
3) “Do I want to
inform, educate, report, persuade, challenge, or entertain?”
Developing your aim will help you to adopt the best writing style for your
reader. For example, an educational document will likely be more formal than
one written for entertaining.
CONNECT WITH YOUR READERS
To write 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 supervisor, my team of employees, or our
clients?”
2) “How much information do my readers
need?”
3) “How familiar are my readers with the
topic?”
4) “How much time do my readers have? Would
my readers prefer a short, succinct presentation of facts and statistics, or
more narration and exposition?”
Knowing your audience will allow
you to write content in a way that appeals to your readers.
SHAPE
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. Then go through the outline and add more information and more detail. An
outline will create the structure for your document. Soon enough your writing
will come more easily, quickly, and with greater clarity.
WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW BEST
At this stage, read over your
outline and write the first draft. Establish the main idea of the document and
support your argument throughout. If a blank white page glares back at you like
headlights, just start writing on whatever topic you know best. According to
American novelist Jack London, “You can’t wait for inspiration. You
have to go after it with a club.” Don’t worry about the sequence if
the ideas come to you out of order. You can cut and paste later.
WORDY WEIGHT LOSS
If you have time, step away from the
document. Come back to it later with a fresh mind. Now add material where
needed. Trim away unnecessary sections. Refine the text to communicate what you
want to say. Remember: less is more. Try not to repeat ideas. Repetition,
unless necessary, is tiresome for the reader. Keep the piece moving along. Use
a lively pace. Progress through your points efficiently.
The following
sections address some of the most common writing problems. Use these tips to
write more clearly, effectively, and lively.
I.) PUNCTUATION
a) Apostrophes
Do not use 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 use
apostrophes in the possessive forms “his,” “hers,” and
“ours.”
Incorrect: The window office is her’s.
Correct: The window office is hers.
Do not use 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 two complete sentences with
a comma.
Incorrect: The meeting was cancelled, I finished my
work early.
Correct: The meeting was cancelled, so I finished my
work early.
Correct: Since the meeting was cancelled, I
finished my work 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 slightly tighten the deadline.
Correct: I was
told we needed to tighten the deadline slightly.
III.) SPELLING
a) “A lot” is always two words.
Incorrect: I have alot of work to do.
Correct: I have a
lot of work to do.
b) “To” is a function word often
used before the infinitive form of a verb (to go).
c)
“Too” is an adverb that means “excessively” (too
difficult).
d) “Two” denotes the number 2.
Incorrect: This file cabinet is to heavy for me to move.
Correct: This file cabinet is too heavy for me to move.
e) “There” is an adverb indicating a place (over there).
f) “Their” is a possessive word that shows ownership
(their computers).
g) “They’re” is the
contraction form of “they are.”
Incorrect: There
results for this quarter were excellent.
Correct: Their results for
this quarter were excellent.
Incorrect: Their working very hard
today.
Correct: They’re working very hard today.
IV.) STYLE
a) Sentence Variety
To
write more lively, vary sentence structure. Use alternate ways of beginning,
and combine short sentences to create different sentence lengths.
Before:
I organized the files for all the new accounts this
week. Then I created a more efficient labeling system. I color-coded
everything. I made sure 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 system. After I documented all paper files electronically,
I put these files in the empty file cabinet.
V.) ACTIVE VOICE vs.
PASSIVE VOICE
The English language has two "voices": active voice
(the subject performs an action; and passive voice (the subject is acted upon).
In business communication, all good writers write in active voice. Lazy writers
write in passive voice. Writing in active voice shortens your sentences and
makes your writing sound 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 taken by the
photographer.
ACTIVE: The photographer is taking the photo.
HELPFUL RESOURCES
To learn more about fixing common writing
mistakes, check out
The Electronic
Writing Course. It’s a program that teaches the basics of good writing
and editing. If you want to check your document against 36,000 style and usage
mistakes, check out StyleWriter.
It’s a style and usage Plain English checker. If you want to write more
lively and creatively, check out
WhiteSmoke
Software. It’s a program that fixes and enriches your text.
If you follow these guidelines, you’ll stop 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?
ABOUT
THE AUTHOR
Brian Konradt has been a professional freelance writer for
over ten years. He is founder of
FreelanceWriting.com and
LiteracyNews.com.
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