WRITING SKILLS-WHY SO IMPORTANT??

Organize Your Writing:

Whether you are writing a memo to your co-worker or a report for your boss, you should decide what information you want to convey. Here is how to do this:

1. List each item you need to discuss in your memo or report.
2. Put them in order — from most to least important
3. Write a brief summary of your entire memo — this will be your first paragraph.
4. Expand on each item listed in step 1.
5. If any action needs to be taken by the recipient, state that in your closing paragraph.

Some Tips

Avoid wordiness. Say out loud what you are trying to write. Listen to how the words sound. For example, the sentence, "I found out that I should take a look at our past sales figures in order to come up with a plan to help us re-evaluate our sales technique" could be more simply stated as "I must take a look at our past sales figures to re-evaluate our sales technique."

Write for your audience. Use simple language. You should not try to impress your reader with your huge vocabulary. Chances are you will frustrate your reader instead. Most people are juggling several tasks at the same time, and are interested in receiving only necessary information. You are responsible for making this happen.

Stay away from jargon (your reader may not understand). If your work is very technical, but the person you are writing to is not well versed in that field, stick to words that person will understand.

A cliché (Phrase or idea that is not original)a day keeps the reader away — or at least it does not make him or her remember what you are saying. You want your writing to be memorable. Because we hear clichés often, we become desensitized to them. The words, then, are not uniquely associated with your writing.

When possible, use the active voice. The active voice makes your sentence stronger and usually shorter for e.g. Passive voice: "Sales increased due to the networking I did." Active voice: "My networking increased sales."

Of course pay attention to grammar. A good dictionary should be nearby, along with a thesaurus. A thesaurus will allow you to keep your writing fresh by helping you find a variety of words to use.

Proofreading is one of the most important things you can do. Since you probably do most of your writing on a computer, you have access to automated spelling and grammar checkers. Beware though

Some words, used in the wrong context may be missed by computerized spell checkers. For example the sentence "To employees attended too meetings two learn about the gnu software," would pass through the spell check without any misspellings being detected. Have someone else proofread your document, if possible. If time allows, put your composition away, and proofread it later, or even better, the next day.