Good Writing Skills

Blogs constitute the first step in making of an author, today. There never was a time when so many aspirant authors were seen to find their space. Further, if your blogs become popular, the chances are strong that when you write a book the same will also be widely accepted. That will motivate you to write more and try to become author of a bestselling book. The popularity of eBooks may have hurt the traditional book business, but more books are being written than ever before.

But that is only one of the many advantages of writing blogs.

The more commonly in use is the benefit of improving your writing skills in general. It will improve your vocabulary, your sentence construction and remove problems of syntax. Clarity of expression also improves your credibility as well as your productivity.

I am reproducing a document which I found on the net. It is very inspiring. The title of the document is:

The Importance of Good Writing Skills in the Workplace

“Profession

Obviously good writing skills are important when your job involves writing, be it as a journalist, paralegal or public relations professional – that goes without saying. If you are employed for your writing skills, having “good” writing skills is a job requirement. However, more professions require good writing skills than those traditionally associated with writing. Any time a profession requires written communication, writing skills become important.

Communication

With emails, notes, letters, texts and Tweets, most people spend a fair amount of time at work communicating via the written word. Whether you are messaging a colleague, writing to your manager, or crafting the company newsletter, your writing skills can boost or hinder your career easily, even if you do not have a “writing” profession. Basically, writing skills make a difference in how you come across.

Credibility

People with good writing skills are generally seen as more credible. Think to yourself how you would interpret an email from a colleague that was filled with typos and grammatical errors. At best, he was negligent in that he didn’t proofread his message or use spell check; at worst, he comes across as less intelligent and less capable. Better writers tend to get higher grades and be perceived as more competent and more intelligent than their less literary counterparts.

Considerations

In the workplace, you need to make sure that you proofread everything you write, from an email to a company memo. However, just because good writing skills are a plus, you still need to pick your battles. Correcting others can work against you, in some cases even undermining you. Further, context and tone are just as important as grammar. While obvious mistakes are a no-no, such as using “their” and “they’re” incorrectly, smaller errors, like confusing “who” and “whom” are less important.

Importance of Good Business Writing Skills

Learning and honing business writing skills can have a positive impact on an individual’s career advancement. Effective channels of communication make an organization run smoothly. Professional quality writing being sent through these channels improves productivity and the ability of all functional areas to work together, particularly in an increasingly global workplace where collaboration is the norm.

Persuasion

Sales and marketing professionals are particularly skilled at using the written word to persuade customers to purchase the company’s products and services--or at least pay attention to its advertisements. But everyone in the business world finds it necessary at times to persuade someone else to take an action based on written material they have sent. The chief financial officer of a company makes written recommendations to the chief executive officer about expenditures. Human Resources tries to make a written case for hiring a particular individual to the manager to whom the person will report.

Clarity

Clarity in writing is one of the most difficult skills to master. Word choice comes more easily for some businesspeople than for others. Venture capitalists sometimes receive business plans that are so unclear it is difficult for them to tell what business the company is in. Presumably, expressing it clearly on paper proved too difficult for them.

Professional Courtesy

In this age of text messaging, business communication increasingly comes in a shorthand fashion. Even email has a much less formal style in many companies than a letter. Taken to an extreme, this type of writing can seem lazy. If communication becomes too abrupt, it can send a message that the person receiving the message was not important enough for the sender to take the time to communicate in complete sentences or check spelling and grammar. Conversely, a carefully written email can be more impressive than a letter because it has the added element of rapid transmission--the other person was so important that the sender wanted to make sure the message arrived quickly.

Completeness

Business communication can be ineffective if a document does not completely express its intention. An instruction manual on how to operate machinery, for example, must not have gaps in the sequence of steps or the how-to explanations. The result of incomplete information could be failure to run the machine properly or even cause injury to the equipment operator. A financial report that has the quality of completeness would be one that answers the reader’s questions before he has time to ask them.

Inspiring Confidence

Supervisors and business associates who express themselves well in writing inspire a feeling of confidence in their abilities from employees or colleagues. Sharp writing conveys the impression that a sharp mind composed the words. Sloppy writing, on the other hand, can make others conclude that the creator is not intelligent. Some might even question their job-related competence.

Team Building

Written communication to employees is one way a company shows that it values their contribution and appreciates their efforts. Subtle but strong bonds of teamwork can be built through simple means such as sharing company-wide accomplishments -- sales milestones, for example -- with everyone in the organization. The tone of the communication is particularly important. If it is energetic and positive, the employees will respond to it in an equally positive fashion.”

Hope you find it very useful for not only writing blogs but also for enhancing your expression in general.

Thanks for reading.