Coimbatore Taxi News

Improve professional image by fine tuning writing skills

You in all probability pepper your speech with informal words like ‘cool', ‘neat', and ‘awesome' when interacting with your peers. As people have become so informal, it can be easy for our writing to follow suit. However, the business world demands professionalism. Inadvertently, you could offend a client or employer who sees your salty lingo as a sign of laziness or not so professional. Research suggests a vast number of employees are sabotaging their career by ignoring their writing skills.

The face you regularly present in your workplace is via written reports, presentations, proposals, executive summaries, memos, e-mails, instant messaging (yes, you read it right) and all other forms of written communication. It takes just a quick glance, maybe three seconds, for someone to evaluate you when you send out a written communication. In this short time, the other person forms an opinion about you based on your writing skills.

Given the rapid pace of technology innovation, writing skills is the lifeblood of business today. Every employee is under increasing pressure to deliver better results faster than the competition. A professional written communication gives a meaningful message and establishes a connection that leaves a powerful impression. It's not just correct grammar that reflects professionalism; it's also the appearance of the words on the page. Content that is well organised and neatly formatted assures readers that the author represents quality and professionalism.

Apart from the words you write, how you think about the words is equally important. Sloppy thinking is entwined with sloppy writing. The key here is to write concisely and clearly with clarity in thoughts.

Here are some tips that can be followed for all forms of written communication:

State your objective in the title, subtitle, or first sentence. It allows the reader to quickly decide if he wants to go ahead with reading the document. For longer or more complex documents, consider stating the objective in the first paragraph.

Knowing your audience is important. Ask yourself - Who will read this? What do they need to know? What do they expect from you? Do some research on your audience and pitch your points, flow and language to suit them.

Stay on topic. Don't allow unrelated research to throw you off track. Focus on the subject otherwise you might lose the reader.

Start with the most important information first. Remember, the reader does not have ample time to go through pages of information to find what is relevant to them.

Insert illustrations and graphics to keep the writer on track. This helps to reinforce the discipline of using modular structure, which leads to clear, simplified writing.

Use formatting techniques to organise your documents. This will allow the reader to find the information they need quickly and easily – and skip what they don't need.

Emphasize major points. A word of caution: overuse of emphasis may result in the impact getting diminished and the text looking chaotic.

Use simple sentences to communicate key points. Avoid jargon. You don't want your reader to have a dictionary in their hand while reading your document.

Avoid wordiness. Instead of saying 2 p.m. in the afternoon, say 2 p.m.

Spell check. Pay attention to details. An error-free report or proposal speaks volumes. It reflects your professional attitude.

Take advantage of the vast number of resources available in the market. A good dictionary, thesaurus and books on grammar such as Elements of Style by Strunk & White will allow you to keep your writing fresh.

E-mail etiquette: Here the visual components such as your smile, body language and eye contact are missing. So be careful when writing messages laced with anger or flippancy, which can be easily misinterpreted. Be conscious about responding to your emails within 24-hours. People expect a response just like a phone call. Use email as a formal communication tool. When addressing someone use a greeting (Hello Anita), a closing (Regards) and a signature that tells who you are, your title, department, work address and telephone number.

Craft a good email subject. Summarise the message and be concise. Avoid using adjectives, articles and adverbs. For instance, if you are inviting somebody to a conference, use “Invitation: Seminar on presentation skills, New York April 10-12.”

These suggestions have been around a long time. Unfortunately, few people follow them religiously. However, as the need to improve professional image continues, our need to improve written communication will also grow. With a little fine-tuning and practice your writing skills will convey the confident, poised, capable and attentive image that you have worked hard for!

-The Hindu