How to Make Your Written Communication More Effective
Throughout history, written communication skills have been one of the most valued assets of academics, professionals, business people and more. Today, effective written communication is just as important – many of us use email, messaging and written correspondence to do some of our most important teamwork. We close deals, solve issues and bridge communication gaps using the power of the written word. Here is how you can work on yours every day:
1. Incorporate Important Concepts
One of the essential aspects is to be able to develop a high level of creative writing. However, this is not at all useful if your spelling or grammar is not good. To improve this aspect, there are a lot of tools that can help you.
So you can also choose between virtual tools or learn to handle all these concepts by yourself. When content is not well spelt then all its prestige and credibility are quickly diluted in front of the reader. Make sure you first take care of that and then look to improve the quality of your writing.
2. Be (Very) Patient
As with any other activity, writing requires a certain amount of practice and time to perfect. That is why it is not possible to obtain perfect writing from one second to the next. Therefore, it is important to seriously consider improving writing skills from the beginning.
In this way, it will be possible to incorporate new techniques and key tips when writing. Here you will have the possibility to obtain a unique style worthy of a professional. On the other hand, you will also be able to lose the fear of writing and obtain high-quality content.
3. Receive Constructive Criticism
Another factor in becoming a professional writer is constructive criticism. However, in this case, it is not a matter of receiving criticism from just anyone. Therefore, the most important thing is to have a professional writer colleague who is willing to do the job.
In this sense, you will have the possibility to detect a certain amount of mistakes or confusing expressions. It often happens that other writers can see some negative aspects that you do not. So, after applying the comments of a professional you will be able to increase your skills.
Or take our communications self-assessment quiz.
4. Consider a Writing Workshop
One of the key tools to ensure your written communication skills are always effective is to join a writing workshop. Even a lot of people don’t do this because they think they won’t get anything good or useful out of it. Nothing could be further from the truth as writing exchange is highly beneficial here.
Besides, you do not need to develop a very extensive body of work to be involved in a workshop of this kind. There are a lot of marketing professionals who say they start these workshops because of their benefits. So after that, you can receive a lot of useful pointers to improve your skills.
Make sure you attend writing workshops that are similar to the type of writing you want to get better in. For example, if you need help writing a personal statement, join business writing workshops or career-building seminars.
5. Increase Reading
Here it is important to mention that the greatest writers are also experienced readers. It is one of the most used techniques to improve one’s writing style. Here it does not mean copying the writing style of other authors. On the contrary, it is simply a matter of selecting the best ways of writing from each one to use them to your advantage.
At the same time, here you will have the possibility to analyse how different writers wish to express something. Also, you will be able to notice that the choice of the precise words is not an unimportant aspect. If you want to expand your thinking about writing, reading is important.
6. Analyse Attractive Content
Generally, blogs that are superior to others are more attractive to readers. However, the vast majority of them do not analyse the aspects that allow content to be attractive. Therefore, this particular analysis will help you to get good ideas.
When you are faced with attractive content, you must analyse part by part how it is shaped. After that, you can start by highlighting the phrases or words that are most attractive to you. So, the goal here is to understand what makes a blog content so catchy. So, from here, you can incorporate excellent ideas for your content.
7. Assimilate Techniques From Your Favourite Writers
A common misconception here is that many writers opt for plagiarism from other professional writers. This technique is nothing like that since it is not a special skill. On the contrary, it is about opting for the writing techniques used by other high-calibre writers.
In this way, you can develop your style from the good ideas of other writers. In turn, this can be done much more easily when you choose writers you like. Fortunately, today there are thousands of writers for any topic of interest.
8. Use Schemes or Outlines
One of the best ways to organise the content you want to write is with a tour or outline. In simple words, it is a matter of selecting the questions you will answer throughout the content. In other words, here you will be able to consider what topics should not be missing in your next writing.
Here you also have the possibility of taking a complex or simple route. Beyond that, this is an excellent technique used by professional writers. When it comes to business and marketing writing, it’s also recommended that you first define your goals, and then start with the very act of writing.
9. Drafts Are Not the Final Product
Finally, and very importantly, you should consider that drafts will not be your best creation, they are a work in progress. It is advisable to let some time pass after you finish writing a content.
This way, you will be able to apply high-level corrections and edits. After this procedure, you will notice that the final result is very different from the first draft.
10. Polishing the Final Result
After writing different content daily, you will be able to increase your skills. However, there is another crucial aspect of completing this cycle of creation. Without going any further, it is about editing the necessary parts. It is one of the most important aspects to be able to perfect any content.
Conclusion
Just like with all other skills, effective written communication is all about practice. It’s definitely recommended to take some time to study the theory, but the best way to go is actually doing it and seeing yourself progressing quickly.
You can also join some of the writing courses available online or in your community. Even creative writing courses will teach you how to approach writing from a different perspective. Once you get a grip over all these aspects we have talked about, your written communication will progressively advance, too.
