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HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR AWFUL OR LOUSY WRITING SKILLS IN THE WORKPLACE If there is one significant 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 customer / 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? Writing concisely for business Being able to write well for business means being able to write your message clearly and concisely. These tips and examples will help you to keep your writing brief and professional. 1. Plan Planning what you want to write before you start writing is a good way of making sure you only include the relevant information. It's often helpful to put your points into paragraphs before you start, so that you can avoid repeating the same ideas. 2. Use an objective sentence Starting your writing with an objective also helps you to focus your writing. The following phrases are useful: Asking for information
I would like some more information about (your range of) Making a request
Please could you (send me your price list)
I would be grateful if you could (arrange a meeting) Making an appointment
Are you free (on Tuesday for a meeting about) Responding to a previous email
Thank you for your email (about the meeting) Attaching something to your email
Please find attached (the report you wanted) There are more ways of stating your objective (such as how to inform, confirm, explain, suggest, announce, complain and threaten) in our business writing ebook. 3. Use modal verbs Modal verbs help you to write concisely. For example, instead of writing "There is a slight probability that we will get the order tomorrow" you can write "We may get the order tomorrow" or "We might get the order tomorrow". Modal verbs also help you to keep your writing polite. See our article on staying polite in business. Here are some ways you can use modals instead of longer phrases: For likelihood and probability = may / might / will
It is likely to / There is the likelihood that = We may / We might / it may / it might…
It is unlikely to happen = It might not happen
It is definite that = We will / It will… For necessity = must / have to / need
There is a necessity to / It is necessary to = We must / We have to… For ability = can
I have no ability to = I can't… For possibility = can / could
There is a possibility that = We can / We could…
I have no possibility to = I can't… 4. Keep sentences grammatically simple You are less likely to make grammatical mistakes if you avoid complicated constructions such as "not only, but…" or "in spite of the fact that"… If in doubt, use simple word order principles when you write, such as the SVOMPT principle: Subject Verb Object (Manner Place Time)
"I am writing to confirm our meeting on Tuesday at 3pm. " Keep sentences short, with one idea in each sentence. Avoid using too many commas or parentheses, which can make your sentences over-long. 5. Don't use over-formal words A good rule is to use general business words rather than old-fashioned formal words.
For example, avoid "above-mentioned" (use "above"); "herewith" and "hereby" (you can normally delete these without changing the meaning of the sentence); and "hitherto" (use "up to now"). 6. Edit out unnecessary words You can replace some phrases by single words. "as of the date of" = from
"by means of" = by
"at this moment in time" = now
"for the purpose of" = for
"so as to" = so
"in the event that" = if
"further to" = following Avoid words that don't add meaning. For example, "very" can often be deleted without changing the meaning. For example, you can write "expensive" instead of "very expensive" without losing any extra meaning. Other words that can generally be deleted to make your writing more concise are "really" and "absolutely". 7. Use verbs rather than noun clauses Verbs will give your writing more impact than heavy-sounding noun phrases. For example, use "discuss" instead of the longer phrase "have a discussion". Other examples of this are "have a meeting" (meet), "give consideration to" (consider) and "be of concern to" (concern) 8. Avoid cliches A cliche is an expression that everyone else seems to use. Cliches don't add any new information to what you write, and they make your writing boring and predictable. Examples of cliches are "to all intents and purposes", "to think outside the box" and "to push the envelope". If you have made a plan before you write so that you only include relevant information, then you don't need to add cliches to "pad" out your message.
Training guidelines for a business article:
- Preparation
- Writing Plan
- Writing Process
The goal of this article is to acquaint you with the standard white paper, the appropriate content for a white paper, the kind of research that is required and how to write globalspeak.
You may write about an interesting topic after collecting all the important information that you need, but your article may put the reader to sleep after a brief look. Well, let's face it; do you want your article to send readers off the site? Would you want it to be the exit page on a site? We know that your writing is not that bad and our scare tactics don't really work, but this could happen to any web writer. Don't let it happen to you.
What kind of business articles does your company need? What kind of brand do you want to portray? As far as credibility goes, how do your articles fare? Do you have what it takes to get a site like Yahoo, Bit Pipe or Forrester to list them? Articles of a certain caliber, we mean!
Let's summarize the writing process:
- Writing Plan Writing process: Research
Pre-writing
Structure of ideas and writing patterns Paragraph sequence formation Introduction and Conclusion ideas Formatting Editing
- Rewriting
Preparation
Know thy target audience: an irrefragable rule of web writing! The article you write may supply information to the reader, help him make a decision or recommend a procedure. How much your reader knows will determine what kind of background information you need to provide.
For example, what is the reader trying to gain from this article?
- New and useful information Intellectual stimulation Keeping abreast with the current trends Skills improvement
- Practical hints or "how to s"
Previous knowledge?
Do you assume that the reader knows the basic concepts and has a general understanding of the topic? One of the worst gaffes you can make is to assume that he knows a lot more about the topic than he actually does or worse still, assume that he knows nothing and sounds patronizing instead.
Deadlines for the project, the purpose, scope, proposed approach and time allotted to write are some of the specific requirements that you must chalk out before you get your hands on that keyboard (or pen on paper).
Writing Plan
What are the skills required of a writer? Determination, patience and practice! Researching, writing, reviewing and rewriting, rewriting and rewriting!
Getting ideas: Original ideas and unusual approaches come from random thinking -- a mix of random and logical thoughts. This is a left-brain and a right brain effort.
Research: How do you research the content of your article? In some cases, what you want is easy to find. But, while writing about new trends and new ideas it is likely that you will find information in the most unlikely places.
Personal contacts and friends, your past experiences, printed information, the Internet, visual sources and companies and organizations are the various sources that can form a germinating ground for your research.
Use the Internet to search for the information that you need.
Research Methods
A few search engine tips: Before embarking on the research process, it helps to check on the existing knowledge, either resident within yourself, or with your peers or in a knowledge base accessible within the company. After you have collated all the information you will need in your knowledge base, it's time to start your research.
It's important to know exactly what you are looking for. When typing in keywords in search engines, use words that are precise, but not overtly restrictive. Key phrases might yield more accurate results. Using wild cards to truncated key words in an appropriate manner also help here. Use the search engine and the navigational tools within the site, and perhaps modify the URL of the site to help you in your search.
Writing Process
Collating all the information that you have so painstakingly collected and incorporating it in a writing process is what you will do next.
At this stage you have not worked out the "how" of the article.
You can put down whatever thoughts come to mind in a point-form without worrying about grammar and style, or even punctuation used. There are many ways of doing this, either by free writing, clustering or even using a flow chart to sequence your points. You need to form ideas at this stage, group them and then later decide on the structure and sequence of your writing.
Brainstorm: Brainstorming is a method of generating ideas using free association. All minds, however uncreative (supposedly) are wonderful tools for developing ideas and brainstorming is a sure fire way to get those itsy bitsy gems of thought out in the open.
Free writing is a fine method of developing critical thinking skills. What it means is writing free of constraints -- without worrying about grammar, spelling, the right words or punctuation. Writing whatever comes to mind continuously without worrying about the style and instead concentrating on investing ideas onto a paper is the main objective here.
Mind mapping: Sketching out ideas in the form of visuals or doodles (that make some kind of sense) on a piece of paper and grouping them in clusters is a fun approach to your idea germination. We could call it the graffiti approach. What you would do here is to write a word that you associate with your topic, lets say, "search engines." Write down words related to this -- keywords, descriptions etc. Now, jot down sub categories for each of these words and then group them in a logical manner. Here, you are using both the creative and logical mind (we assume that you have both). Using a colored pen you can draw lines between groups or clusters and write down the association and other ideas that occur to you.
Don't forget to jot down introductory/summary remarks, abbreviations, important facts, dates, graphs and drawings. Any personal comments you want to make regarding your article or otherwise can be bracketed.
Step 1:Identifying the core statement:
Establish a purpose to this process by answering these questions:
What do I want people to do as a result of reading my article?
What do I want to say in this article? This will also tell you what kind of headline you want to incorporate -- something that says a lot to the reader and motivates them to read more.
Step 2: Setting objectives:
Identify about 3 to 6 main objectives of the article. This will help you decide on the structure and sequence of the contents in the article.
Step 3: Framework:
A route map of what and how you are going to structure the article is the general idea here. Are you going to adopt the narrative style, the persuasive form or the technical (scientific form) or the descriptive style? Once you've agreed on this, an outline for the issue to be discussed, any arguments for and against if necessary, a recap along with a suitable introduction and conclusion constitutes a rough framework for the article.
If you are persuasively trying to sell a product or a service, you will paint a scenario that requires your product or service and then move on to describing the problems or reasons for using the product. This outline will comprise a description of the product benefits and also demolish reasons against the product. At the end, you may summarize the benefits of the product or service and then conclude in an action statement. An action statement is one that makes readers act.
The scientific form or a technical article has a framework as follows:
Description of the purpose of the report or the investigation followed by the methods used in supporting this investigation, the data used and the final conclusion of your report. Using visual tools and aids here give more clarity to your findings or explanations.
Introduction to the article:
This may be the most difficult place to start. Opening remarks are crucial, even more so in web writing.
A useful model to follow in the introduction is AIDA
A - Gain Attention
I - Attract Interest
D - Create Desire (Anxiety)
A - Stimulate Action
Adopt a journalistic approach or the "inverted pyramid" method. The inverted pyramid style works best here. Who, what, where, when, why and how of the information that you are going to provide summarized in gist and then the rest of the article upholding these statements is what is called the inverted pyramid approach. So, start with a conclusion and spend the rest of the essay supporting it.
Asking a question, stating an important fact, quoting someone famous, making an interesting and startling observation are some of the many ways that one can introduce a topic. The aim here is to grab the attention of the reader, a hook that seduces.
Just in case this BRILLIANT INTRODUCTION doesn't happen immediately, you can always write, "Brilliant introduction goes here," and work on it later.
Complete your draft and review the points that you made. Analyzing your draft will give you an idea of the structure and the form that your article is going to take. Think of metaphors, analogies and parables or examples or any visual aids and illustrations that you can use to help the reader understand the article better.
At this juncture, you can decide which idea goes into what paragraph and the sequence of these paragraphs. Now you need to work on those individual paragraphs and, of course, write. Sentences and paragraphs begin to appear with more clarity here.
Keep in mind the following:
Organization: The opening words of a sentence convey the main idea of the sentence. The main idea of the paragraph is conveyed in the first sentence, also called the topic sentence. Don't include more than one idea to a paragraph.
Vary the sentence length and pattern (about 7 to 20 words per sentence). Paragraph lengths can vary from 6 to 8 lines with appropriately titled sub-headings. Bulleted lists and adequate amount of white space aid readers who skim through articles in deciding whether the article is worth more than a cursory perusal. So, make your article pretty and easy to read.
Language: Adopt a conversational tone and use terms that your readers can picture. Don't write in the third person, you don't want your article to sound like boring official memos, do you? Put people in your writing; write to one person, use anecdotes, eyewitness accounts and other interesting fables or examples to captivate the hurried reader. Be assertive and forthright in whatever you want to say.
Eliminate non-motivating phrases and sexist language. Instead of writing "We hope to have covered all salient features in this article," accent the positive and motivate your readers with "Now, that we have covered the salient features of...." Conveying an image of confidence and credibility takes priority when writing an article. Backing up all assertions made with solid foolproof explanations comes next.
Keep your prose short and trim. Flowery language doesn't help in keeping readers on your site. The dictionary has a billion words but it does not mean that you use all of them in your article. Clean up the dead wood and use phrases and words that a reader easily understands. Immediate gratification is what most readers today are looking for.
A few things to avoid:
- Spelling and grammatical errors -- Use the spell checker on your computer and then get a peer or a friend to edit your article. Long verbs: use shorter verbs like introduce, begin, start or commence instead of "in the beginning." Passive voice: Eliminate sluggish passive voice expressions.
Example: We need a cover letter for the final report.
Instead of
For the final report a cover letter was needed. Use verbs of action:
I received a copy.
Instead of
I was given a copy. Not capitalizing abbreviations: Always capitalize abbreviations and expand them when you introduce them in the essay. Avoid using qualifiers like little, rather and very. Abstract language: Use precise language and write in the active voice. Use the comma correctly. Avoid wordiness: Wordiness is using lengthy words and sentences when the same idea can actually be conveyed in a more concise manner.
- Unclear words and sentences: Don't use unfamiliar words, clichés and redundant language.
Examples:
| Use |
Instead of |
| So |
in order that |
| Because |
due to the fact that |
| If |
in the event that |
| As |
in accordance with |
Conclusion: It usually helps to recapitulate what was said in the thesis statement. This tells your reader that you have accomplished what you set out to. You can summarize your essay, call the readers to act or suggest results or consequences.
Style: Develop an individual style of your own by writing about anything that interests you as often as you can. A useful checklist at the end of writing:
- A powerful introduction Emphasize key points in an unusual manner Adopt a conversational style Examples, anecdotes, illustrations Easy to follow arguments Right tone Unusual stories and words
- Personal writing -- using the word "you"
Proofreading and editing tips: Refer to the writing guidelines and the QC guidelines in the process document.
Tips to handle writer's block: You are all set to start writing when all of a sudden your mind is a blank! A familiar feeling among all writers; a forlorn sensation of desolation and dread! Your article needs to be submitted in a few hours and your mind is stuck in a state of nothingness!
Well, it does not signal the end of your writing career nor does it mean the death of your article. Writer's block need not become the bane of your existence. All it requires is some mature handling.
Read a book, go out and look at the garden, indulge in a hobby, play a game, chat with a friend, listen to music or do anything that can relax your mind, be it bungee jumping or curling up in bed and reading your favorite book! And if you are not willing to let go of your writing, then write by all means. But, write about something else -- about the ten favorite things you like (or hate!) about your spouse or your friends or your boss, the wonderful things you plan to buy with a million dollars or the first time you cooked a meal.
You will soon find your creative juices flowing, and that article or essay will be easier to write. This article from The Guardian tells you more about writer's block.
Vocabulary Aids: When you come across a difficult word, look it up in the dictionary (place one on your desk or bookmark any online dictionary). Create your own list of words and store them in an accessible place. Use the new words that you learn in sentences while conversing with peers (as long as the words are used within context and people don't think that you are trying to show off your newfound knowledge, it's okay).
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