Is Your Writing Holding You Back?

A guest post from Continuing Studies facilitator, Fiona Prince.

Do you get cold sweats before you hit the send key for a company-wide email?

Do you struggle to find the right words to express your ideas in business reports?

Do you make it to the first round of job competitions, but fail to pass the written components?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you are not alone.

Fiona Prince

We have entered an era where writing skills in the workplace determine who advances, who stays put and who gets let go when it’s time to cut costs. If you are unable to communicate effectively via email; if you don’t know how to put your thoughts into a logical sequence for a business-case; or, if you haven’t the faintest idea how to put your recommendations into a briefing-note, you may find yourself stuck in a dead-end job with little hope for advancement.

You might think that writing has always been important in the workplace, but before the mid-1990s most communications occurred face-to-face and by phone. We had trained secretaries and stenographers who took notes at meetings, and communications professionals who turned rough drafts into polished documents. Although these positions still exist in some organizations, most companies require employees to write clear and concise emails, coherent reports and engaging presentations.

Most organizations now require their employees to write in different styles for different audiences, too. For example, email exchanges between friendly coworkers may be informal and include incomplete sentences, abbreviations and emoticons; emails sent to management and customers will most likely be formal and include status reports, recommendations and requests for decisions. To confuse matters further, as people work together and build working-relationships, the tone and language in their emails may shift from informal to formal and back, depending on the subject and whether they are writing the email on a desktop, tablet or smartphone: the smaller the device, the shorter the message.

So what can you do to succeed with your writing? Join me in March on campus for How to Improve Your Writing: Impact, Grammar and Editing to help you write clear, concise messages in plain language for any format (email and print), and in May for How to Improve Your Writing: Impact, Grammar and Editing - ONLINE  and Word Power: How to Improve Your Vocabulary and Ability toExpress Yourself, a one-day on-campus workshop to teach you how to increase your vocabulary, choose the right words and express yourself clearly. 

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Fiona Prince is an enthusiastic communications professional, facilitator and instructor who blends writing techniques with interpersonal communications theories and real-world stories to bring you a positive and memorable learning experience. A recent participant wrote, “When I get the calendar each year, I look to see what Fiona is teaching. I know I will learn something valuable that I can use right away to improve my work-life.”

Find out more at cstudies.royalroads.ca.