I will share a small story here, right at the beginning of this article. A few days back, a colleague sent me an email related to the project proposal we submitted to one of our clients. The email was related to a meeting that was scheduled for one hour’s time. The content of the email was supposed to contain important data points that I was required to present in the meeting. But there was one problem. The email was written so pathetically that it was really difficult to find the data points. On top of that, there were misspellings and incomplete long sentences. There were no para breaks making the email so long that it took me really, really long to find the pieces of information that were of real value to me. As a result, I was not able to prepare myself well, and the meeting did not really go as well as it was supposed to go.
When I tell this story to my friends, most of them agreed that they had had similar experiences. In today’s day and age, there is a flood of information and data. It’s essential to communicate clearly, concisely, and effectively. No one really enjoys reading book-length emails and scourge through bulky emails for relevant data points.
The better your writing skills are.., the easier it will be for you to make a good impression. It can be a good impression on your boss, colleagues, and even client. You will never know the wonders of having a good impression on someone and how it can take you to places.
In the following article, we will explore how we can improve our writing skills and avoid common mistakes.
Think before you write
Before you start typing out or writing your content, you must have a mental framework of what you will write. This is a big mistake that many people make. They work out thoughts as they are writing. What it does is that makes writing less structured and repetitive in a lot of ways. You can start thinking by asking yourself few questions. The questions could be like, “what should the audience have in mind while reading your mail/ report/ blog?”, “What should they think after they are done reading? ” If you do not have a definite answer. You may need to stop for a while, think and then move ahead with your writing.
Watch out for grammatical errors
I am sure you definitely do not want to know that there should be no scope for grammatical errors in your document. It is essential to keep brushing grammar now and then keep away from all grammatical errors. There are multiple tools out there like Grammarly that can definitely come in handy with your assignments. But it is good to know it so that you can find that the checker won’t.
Following are some commonly misused words
- Affect (Verb; To influence)/ Effect (Noun; Result or outcome)
- Then (Adverb, indicates the sequence in relation to time)/ Than (Conjunction, it is used for making a comparison)
- Your (Possessive)/ You’re (Contraction of you are)
- It is (Possessive)/ It’s (Contraction of It is)
- Company’s (Possession of company)/ Companies (Plural of the word company)
- There (Proposition)/ Their (Possessive)
Give your content the structure
Unarguably, time is one most precious things at any workplace. So, the onus is on you while you are communicating via writing. It should worth everyone’s time. It is not an impromptu deal wherein you go and write whatever comes to your mind. You need to be conscious about how you structure what your planning to communicate. You need to sit and think each and everything through well in advance.
It should start strong and also finish in a way that people remember it. The flow should be natural in the sense that people who are reading it should be comfortable throughout. It should have a captivating beginning, engaging body, and a conclusive ending.
Never Compromise on clarity
You should know that assumptions and loose ends are the worst for any communication. If you leave room for guesses, people will subjectively fill the gaps and reach varied sorts of conclusions. Try and make the messages as clear as possible. It will make people or the audience believe that you are not concealing any facts or hiding anything. If your communication is blurry or vague, people will start to think that you are hiding something or revealing partial information even if you are not doing so.
Mind the words you choose
Like I mentioned before, writing should be as clear as possible. Try to give absolutely no scope of open interpretation. Make a point that you do not use jargon and abbreviations too much. Use culturally appropriate language, know that some words can have slightly different meanings and shades may vary. Remember not to use confrontational language.
Cater based on who your Audience is
While you communicate, you need to keep your audience right in the center of everything. You need to understand what they want and their emotions; based on this, appeal to your audience’s emotions. This is precisely known as Pathos.
Know your audience
Consider what your audience expects from you and what exclusive you have to add to their knowledge? Be extremely clear with what you are communicating to the audience, and plan out your communication style and everything well in advance. Make sure while you are planning, you keep the audience in your mind throughout.
No negative surprises
Note the statement, the more uncertainties you leave, the more nervous you will be. For starters, know who your audience is. If you know what they already know and what is it that they are expecting. By doing just this, you save yourself and, more importantly, a great deal of trouble. If you know what you are presenting to your audience is useful, you automatically get confidence.
You can do the following things:
- Define your target audience for yourself.
- If possible, do a cohort survey if what you will write is to be read by a large audience. Explicitly ask your audience what they expect from you.
- Run your topic by at least a couple of people to know if you cover all the areas or if you’re overkilling it.
We often attempt to take the communication a notch up by adding unnecessary abbreviations and jargon. A lot of the time audience is not well versed with things you think they know. So, most of the abbreviation that you think they’d know goes right above their head. It is safe to elaborate on the abbreviation and give their full form at least once, even when it’s elementary.
Establish Credibility as a writer
How the Writer (or the speaker) influences the argument is called Ethos. Right from the very beginning, you need to establish the following things:
- Who are you?
- Why should the audience hear or read you?
- Are you competent enough to speak or write on the said issue?
- Where does your authority actually come from?
It is essential to answer the above-mentioned questions to gain trust and establish the right kind of rapport. When you introduce something new or refute something apocryphal, your audience is wary of being open to new or unpopular opinions. The last thing you want your audience to think is that you are trying to hide facts from them. Therefore, you must let your audience know why you are addressing them. At the same time, your audience should feel that you are a competent individual to bring new ideas to the table. If they do not think of you to be a qualified person, they will barely listen to what you have to say on the subject.
Regardless of what you are presenting, it could be a solution to some problem, data, analysis, or something to do with entertainment. The audience will always try and figure out your motives, values, and intentions. This will help them know your credibility and if you are being sincere or not.
Using Assertive Communication Practices
Some techniques can very well come in handy for you and help you communicate assertively.
Use the “I” statements
Use the “I” language as much as you can to communicate any assertion and get your point understood. You should use phrases like “I feel,” “I think,” or “I assume.” For example, “I feel that government is handling the farmer issue with no diligence.”
Empathy
Always express and recognize how the other person feels about the given situation. After taking the other person’s point of view into the perspective, express what you need.
Asking for time
More often than not, we find ourselves so overwhelmed that we do not know how to respond and what to respond with. Instead of going ahead with the baggage of emotions, it is often better to ask for time in such situations. That extra time will give you just enough time to collect yourself and formulate a response rationally. For example, “Haresh, your request is a little offbeat, and it has caught me off guard. I hope it is okay if I get back to you in the next 30 mins.”
Have a storyline
Storytelling is a great tool for the engagement of the audience. The biggest reason that can be attributed is the presence of a chemical in our brain called oxytocin. Multiple studies and research are conducted to back the fact that storytelling does induce oxytocin’s secretion in our brain. The production of oxytocin takes place when we show kindness and trust. It also helps us better cooperate with others by heightening the empathy we feel. In a study, it was found that character-driven stories lead to the production of oxytocin. This leads to the subject’s increase in willingness to help others.
Proofing
The enemy of any good proofreader is time and speed. Many people make the mistake of running through the content that they have written in haste. This is exactly why people miss the mistakes and embarrass themselves with stupid spelling errors and poor grammar. Follow the below-mentioned guidelines to proofread your material next time:
- Read the document out loud
- Use a pacer or your finger along with the text when you read
- Start from the end of your document and make your way up. Reading each sentence separately
- Proof the headers as well as the subheaders
The Last words: Embrace the feedback
Accepting the feedback directed towards you in the right way is something that many people fail at. You should or at least learn to take it graciously, humbly, and positively. If you disagree with the criticism directed towards you, you are expected to put your thoughts forward about the same. Make sure that you are respecting the other person and not coming across as angry or defensive.
There are plenty of tools like a feedback matrix, which can help you sail through feedback’s positive and negative sides. It enables you to connect the things or facts you already know about yourself and things you think you need to explore on a deeper level.
A lot of people make this huge mistake of taking feedback personally. Everyone aims to do their work diligently and with the utmost care and hold it close to their hearts. When someone gives negative feedback on your work, you tend to flip. Please keep in mind if it is constructive feedback about you and not on your overall personality or anything like that. Learn to look at it as guidance and not as anything else.
Sometimes it is the other person with sheer toxic tendencies. Such people have their own issues that they are not able to cope with. They tend to manifest it in many ways. It could be a display of anger or jealousy, and in reality, it is the suffering, not you.
