Writing is a critical skill in business, but it can be incredibly challenging. I’ve stared at an email for hours, trying to get the tone right, and I worked as a ghostwriter for years. I’ve learned a few things throughout my career that significantly improved my writing.
In non-fiction writing, you present your personal take on a set of factual information you want readers to learn about. In the business world, we offer data, but we also focus on interpreting that information. In many jobs, that interpretation is a crucial component of what we are being paid for, so it is vitally important to be able to convey that information.
You could sit down and practice writing emails if you want, and there may be some value in that, but most people feel they write too many emails already. Instead, keeping a journal offers many benefits. One of these is getting thoughts out of your head and onto a page. If you struggle with what to write, then look for some journal prompts online.
In a digital world, people rarely write things out by hand. The problem is that typing works differently in your brain than handwriting does. It slows down the process and makes you think more about you’re writing. This is a feature, not a bug, in some cases. If the point is to communicate ideas, forcing yourself to think more about your words can improve your writing quality.
There are a couple ways to apply this idea. The journal I mentioned is an easy place to start. Since you won’t be sending it to anyone, you don’t have to retype the information again. Another way might be to write a quick draft of what you will say in a notebook before typing out a final version on the computer. Finally, OCR software can translate your written words directly into text if your handwriting is good enough.
Sitting down and writing without creating any structure often results in rambling emails, and you might even forget something you need to say. Before starting, take a few minutes to outline what you want to cover. This ensures you won’t forget anything, and the actual writing process becomes a matter of filling in the details of each point.
Humans are not good at editing their own work. That doesn’t mean drafting and then rereading emails is a waste of time. It means that you’ll likely find mistakes after you send it. In a lot of cases, this is fine. Most people will forgive a mistake or two if they even notice. In critical communication, where we want minimal errors, bringing in an external editor will result in better content.
If you’ve been to enough career events, you’ve probably heard me mention that I use Grammarly quite a bit (In fact, these notes are being created in their online editor). The free version is enough for basic grammar and spelling checking, and I recommend that to most people since the paid version is not cheap. I haven’t tried any alternatives, but “Grammarly alternatives” brings back plenty of articles on Google for competitors you can try at various price points.
Grammarly is my favorite for content writing, but with things like email communication, there is often context that a digital service won’t know about. Sometimes, emotions are high, and it isn’t easy to ensure that what I’ve written will be heard the way I intended. In these cases, a coworker is a valuable tool for double-checking my work. They know at least a little bit about the bigger picture and how what I’m saying will fit into that. They are also a neutral party for checking the tone of my writing to ensure I’m not writing something that sounds overly emotional.
Writing in a business context is a skill that must be learned. Practice, process, and feedback are all key to improving that skill. As you learn to communicate better with coworkers and customers, it becomes easier to stand out within your peer group- no one will know how good you are at your job if you aren’t able to explain what you know.
Links: