No matter what your job, writing is a valuable skill. The ability to communicate your thoughts, ideas and data in a clear, concise and effective way can make the difference between being heard and being overlooked. Here are a few basic writing tips I have found helpful.
- Lay out main points or ideas before beginning
- Be aware/familiar with the intended audience
- Never use your first draft as your final draft
- ALWAYS run spell check- and then do your own check
- Watch grammar and punctuation usage (especially commas)
- Use the same tense throughout
- Keep it simple- remove unnecessary words and sentences
- Be clear- use short, declarative sentences, use plain English and avoid technical jargon
- For business writing, leave out emotions, opinions and exclamation points
- Use active verbs instead of passive verbs
- Walk away from your writing and come back to it at a later time- chances are you will see something that needs to be clarified
- Have someone else read it to give feedback and edits
- Read your draft out loud to hear it as others would read it
RSS Feed
