Saturday, June 5, 2010

Writing: Making or breaking a career

Writing is an all essential skill in effectively communicating your thoughts. It could either win or break one’s career advancement. But if you find writing a bit elusive, don’t worry. Writing, in essence, is basically a skill and like any other skills, it could be learnt and improved. This article will help you learn the essentials of writing and how to sharpen your writing skills.
Believe it or not, writing can provide you a competitive edge at work. It may even prove to be a deciding factor for your next promotion that you have been eagerly waiting for.
Getting a call or an assignment to edit or proofread an article or a report is part of my job profile. Especially working in a non-English speaking country, where most of the written communication is in a non-native and foreign a language like English, things can get pretty messy. But getting people to write and to write well is not as tough as it sounds.
Let’s face it! One’s ability to communicate one’s thoughts and understanding in words, either to your superior or a peer can make or break the game. The skill of writing in a work setting can never be underestimated.
It is estimated that an executive will spent nearly 70 per cent of her time, in either reading or writing reports of some sort of the other. Out this nearly half of it is spent just in writing. This could mean writing your weekly report, or presenting a budget plan to your manager, or issuing a memo, or writing a letter to your supplier or customer. And none of these written reports can loose content or precision in its presentation.
So, if I have done my job right, by now, I must have convinced you that writing is everywhere and for everyone!
Now, it’s time that I suggested you some of the ways that you could hone your all essential writing skills. But I need to warn you from those who glamorize the world of writing – giving you a comfortable excuse to wile away you task of writing.
Writing is essentially a skill (more so than an art), and like any other skill it can be learnt and developed. The best place to start is by reading, not just reading-reading, but reading a material from a writer’s point of view, appreciating the content as well as the architecture of presentation and the form. This is what I call, ‘conscious reading’. So start now by becoming a ‘conscious reader’.
The next best thing you could do is take up voluntary writing assignments, both at work and off. You could volunteer at your kid’s school in preparing a brochure for the upcoming school’s annual fest, or in editing the school’s newsletter, or getting involved in preparation of your company’s annual report.
Further, you could take up a short term writing courses or story writing courses at your local university or community college. They always offer one.
And get in touch with your friends and peers to personally review what you write or report. It definitely helps. Who knows? Some of your friends can offer you valuable insights to writing.
And that is how I improved my writing skills, and that is what I am suggesting you to improve yours. And next time, if you are wondering how your friend got that promotion, may be you should look into his reports and write-ups.

1 comment:

  1. Coulnt agree more with you, on the importance of writing..

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