Writing and Communication Skills in Business Success

Why are good writing skills essential to career/business success? This question is asked daily by anyone entering the workforce, especially anyone going into administrative or marketing-type jobs. According to Executive Secretary Magazine, a key asset at every stage of your career is good writing skills.

From the moment you write your first cover letter and resume until your retirement speech, this is especially true for anyone who is responsible for a substantial amount of written communication daily. Clear communication is also an essential product of good writing skills. Just because you write well doesn't always mean you write clearly. Businesses and manufacturers spend millions of dollars on selling a product through written communication. So, what does that mean exactly? It means that we're great at concocting terms but poorly state what we mean.

For example, a manual on how to put a bed together explains the instructions in such a way that it does not communicate clearly with the person who is reading it; in other words, it is not reader focused. We, as people, can achieve good writing skills by polishing our grammar, proofreading, and using punctuation effectively. You can look at writing as an exercise. Think of it like practicing an instrument or working out at the gym. If you want to strengthen your skills, writing as often as possible is always a good way to start. You'll find that it is much easier to write regularly if you work it into your schedule. As little as 15 minutes a day could help you brush up on your skills while allowing for some "you time." Reading written material is another way to help refine your writing skills. Anything from articles, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, blogs, travel guides, etc., helps to strengthen vocabulary.

Pick a genre, format, or author and make a go of it. Author Robert Hosking, in the article, Why Good Writing Skills Are Important in Today's Workplace — and Tips for Developing Them, said that when we read, it relays directly to our subconscious and saves good writing habits. As a result, the instinct to write with good habits is less of a struggle. Another question asked by people is why they need to take writing courses or learn writing skills when the advances in technology have lessened our writing to the use of text messages and slang. People have become lazy when it comes to oral communication and written communication because of the technological advances of today and even in our community's schools. Reading a book has become reading a tablet or phone; writing has become sending quick text messages. An article in the Washington Post questioned several executives, consultants, and business leaders from various specialties, with the assumption that some of them, primarily the younger ones, would agree that writing is overrated. Instead, all of them stressed the criticality of good writing skills and how much more important it is than in prior years.

With all that said, it is a necessity to have good writing skills, not only for oral communication but also to obtain a job, write a resume, write reports, memos, business e-mails, and so much more. With so much effort being put into technology, less effort is being put into our ability to communicate using the written word. Joyce E.A. Russell wrote in an article about how much our writing skills set us apart from each other. She talked about how employers talk to her about how many people they get turning in applications that do not review what they write. A lot of informal styles are used, like abbreviations, punctuation errors, and not capitalizing. It is these simple errors that can make or break getting a job, having an effective resume, and even getting into a good college.

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