Good day Darla,
Communication is key to the success of any business. Also, the means of expressing yourself in writing is another aspect entirely.
It's vital to communicate clearly, concisely and effectively as people in general do not have the time to read book-length emails as well as the patience to scour badly-constructed emails for "buried" points.
The better your writing skills are, the better the impression you'll make on the people around you including your colleagues, friends and your clients. You never know how far these good impressions will take you.
To be good writers, we need to be forcus, patient, determined to write to avoid mistake and ambiguities.
First and formost, to learn how to write, we need to:-
1. Consider our audience and format of the email to be sent:-The first step to writing clearly is choosing the appropriate format. The format, as well as your audience, will define your "writing voice" – that is, how formal or relaxed the tone should be. For instance, if you write an email to a prospective client, should it have the same tone as an email to a friend? Definitely not. Start by identifying who will read your message. Is it targeted at Gary Carson (Founder of SFI), your entire team, or a small group of people? With everything you write, your readers, or recipients, should define your tone as well as aspects of the content.
2. Composition and Style:- Once you know what you're writing, and for whom you're writing, you actually have to start writing. We can try these tips for composing and styling your document.
a) Start with your audience – Remember, your readers may know nothing about what you're telling them. What do they need to know first? For instance, a Welcome Email or letter to our nw PSAs/CSAs.
b) Create an outline – This is especially helpful if you're writing a longer document such as a report, presentation, or speech. Outlines help you identify which steps to take in which order, and they help you break the task up into manageable pieces of information.
c) Use AIDA – If you're writing something that must inspire action in the reader, follow the Attention-Interest-Desire- Action (AIDA) formula. These four steps can help guide you through the writing process.
d) Try some empathy – We always need to remember our audience's needs at all time and see how it will benefit them. For instance, how to place a Standing order.
e) Use the Rhetorical Triangle – If you're trying to persuade someone to do something, make sure that you communicate why people should listen to you, pitch your message in a way that engages your audience, and present information rationally and coherently.
f) Use simple language – It's usually best to use simple , direct language for our prospects to understand.
3. Structure:- Your document should be as "reader friendly" as possible. Use
headings, subheadings, bullet points, and numbering whenever possible to break up the text to avoid confusing our prospects or team members.
4. Grammatical Errors:- Errors in your document will make you look unprofessional. It's essential to learn grammar properly, and to avoid common mistakes that your spell checker won't find. This indeed will make it easier to understand and readable to anyone.
5. Proofing:- The enemy of good proofreading is speed. Many people rush
through their documents, but this is how you miss mistakes. If we follow these guidelines to check what you've written, it makes errors to be reduced drastically.
a)Proof your headers and subheaders – People often skip these and focus on the text alone. Just because headers are big and bold doesn't mean they're error free.
b) Read the document out loud – This forces you to go more slowly, so that you're more likely to catch mistakes.
c) Use your finger to follow text as you read – This is another trick that helps you slow down.
d) Start at the end of your document – Proofread one sentence at a time working your way from the end to the beginning. This helps you focus on errors, not on content.
In summary, it's important to know how to communicate your point quickly and professionally. Many people spend a lot of time writing and reading, so
the better you are at this form of communication, the more successful you're likely to be. Identify your audience before you start creating your document. And if you feel that there's too much information to include, create an outline to help organize your thoughts. Learning grammatical and stylistic techniques will also help you write more clearly; and be sure to proof the final document. Like most things, the more you write, the better you're going
to be.
All the best Darla.
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