Improve Writing Skills

There is a big difference in filling in a section on Myspace and writing an essay. If you approach tests with a lack of organization and depth, you won’t get comments. You’ll be punished.

I am going to cover just a small part of improving your writing skills here. In order to completely overhaul your writing, you need to do some heavy reading; I’ll get to that later.

Know what most employers say they want more than anything? Sure, a covert affair with somebody beautiful is up there, but when it comes to who they want to hire, a person with knock-’em-dead communications skills is one of the most sought-after candidates. One of the most important goals for a student should be to learn to write in a pithy, intelligent, and appropriate manner.

When writing anything, the main thing you need to consider is who will be reading it. Your audience governs how much you write, how eloquent your word choice must be, and many more intangible things that you have learned to do without even realizing it. Let’s take a look at an example situation involving a short piece of information passed between a group member and his project manager.

Example 1: The client arrived on time. It’s OK. I will get in touch tomorrow.

Example 2: Mr. Smith, the CEO of Blue Widgets, arrived at 5:00 PM. He seemed to be in a good mood as I helped him get situated in his room at the Hilton. I am going to give you a call tomorrow morning at 8:45 AM.

Which one of these is correct?

If you said both, then you are right. The group member in the first example knows that his manager likes short, concise memos. In example two, the project manager is obviously much more thorough and probably carries around a personal organizer at all times. Who is reading should govern how you write.

Let’s apply this to the classroom.

In my literature classes, I would always get red marks for using elevated diction. I thought by using words like contrapositive and perspicacity I would immediately get a good grade. In reality, using words like this got me a lot of really-pissed-me-off B’s.

I was confused; professors should like big words, right? Yes and no. Professors have no qualms with you using dollar-words as long as they help express your overall idea instead of being distracting.

Another mistake many students make with big words is using them incorrectly. Think about the following words: proclivity, propensity. If you look in most thesauri, you will find that these words are listed together. Unfortunately, most professors are literate enough to know the difference in meaning for the two words.

Which of the following is better?

Example 1: He has a proclivity for murder.

Example 2: He has a propensity for murder.

Though both sentences convey the same thought, in modern English the first example is correct. Proclivity has a slightly negative connotation which has its basis in the word’s Latin roots. In other words, by using the first sentence in a class, your professor would think you were making an incisive and concise remark. By using the second, you would seem like you were trying too hard.

If you have a lot to say about something that actually adds to what you are expressing, go ahead and say it. Otherwise, just quit writing. Fluff is junk. Get in and get out.

The book that changed my writing forever is On Writing Well by William Zinsser. It will definitely give your writing a complete makeover, or, as I would have said before reading it, augment your dissemination faculties astronomically.