Writing clearly is the hallmark of communicating effectively. Most often we write and believe that what we have written is clear to others. However, many a times it is not. Our writing in general than its clarity overwhelms us. But if we still believe that what we write is readable and understandable to the larger audience then its time we look at other's writing and analyze where we are placed in terms of clarity in our own writings. In fact, when we look around the people who make the difference, are the one who communicate their ideas clearly and forcefully, both orally and in writing.
Success eludes those who can't express their ideas, or who do so in bureaucratic fashion. Today, its not just enough to be a good scientist, engineer, businessman, or whatever you do. You have to be able to make other people understand what you're doing and why it is important. No matter how competent you may seem in private, your hard work will usually go unrecognized, because others will step in and communicate it more skillfully.
Be with the information explosion
Undoubtedly, today the fastest growing segment of any nation’s economy is information industry, which is by and large, production and dissemination of information. It is rapidly surpassing the mark of production of goods and services. The obvious reason is that the sizes of corporations and government agencies have grown so large that transmitting information through personal contact is merely impossible. In today’s world, clear, concise and to the point writing has greater relevance than ever before. One could get away with disorganized report, ambiguous memos a couple of decades back when people had more time and things moved slowly. But today we are competing with thousand of other people at a time who are sending multiple electronic documents through e-mails. People will not be interested in your writing if it does not convey the central idea in more than a minute.
The important skill
Nine out of ten times when the corporate executives are asked how the business and engineering schools could better equip the students to face the challenges of the real business world. The responses have been unanimously emphasizing to train the students to write better and clear English. However, it is really unfortunate that the education systems do not teach you the skills, which you require to use everyday i.e. to write.
Communication skills are highly rewarded in business, industry, and the scientific community today. If you are able to get messages down on paper clearly and condense masses of data to one sheet of clear analysis, your future in your organization is really bright. Truth is also that a huge amount of money gets wasted every year on research and technical achievements because the reports and memo fails to inform the result concisely. You might wonder that if the system is running on the wrong machine how can you make the difference in totality. But, the message is, you can do something of your part. That will get you noticed and others will follow the example you set in.
Get recognized
The person who can clear the mess of written words will immediately attract attention. People who have never heard of you will recognize you by the word you spread around. You may be helpful to the people for making the language legible of the reports and memos, which are going to impact larger audience.
The danger of sloppy writing is that it can create unimaginable damage and destroy the image of you being a good writer. Even if you write a good piece of concept, idea or script and if it fails to covey its clear meaning, you earn a bad reputation. Next time your readers may find you a burden to read your write-up without really going through it. Your name might sound boring for your reader. Similarly, in the organization, where you work, you get branded as good writer or get compromised as a writer in die-hard requirement.
Always remember your writing can reach far more people than you can personally contact them. To them, you are precisely judged by your writing and that shows how effectively you communicate to them. In case your point of contact with your professional world is through your writing, then its even more tough challenge for you to create your image through your writing. To your audience, in true sense, your writing is you.
Your communication is important
Once Sir William Oslar wrote- "In science, the credit goes to the man who convinces the world, not to the man to whom the idea first occurs."
True, as it is said, scientific investigation or engineering project is never completed until you communicate your results. No matter how significant your findings are, they remain useless unless you communicate them in a way that others can understand. You might have worked long hours and hard way to develop some new ideas or products. When you finally succeeded, you decided that this might be something a lot of other people might find useful.
You excitedly write it up and share this announcing your new result. But you never got a response from them, neither critical statement nor the appreciation. You wonder why such things happen. The practical scenario is you put yourself in the receiver’s shoes and analyze your writings. As you analyze, you understand that where you had gone wrong.
Clear writing is clear thinking
Many a times while you sat down to produce a piece of writing you realized that you don’t understand the subject as you thought. You find yourself as if you have nothing to say in your writing and moreover, whatever you are writing is the information to cover up your ignorance. In reality, writing has a way to visualize your knowledge and uncover the gaps in your understanding. But if you consider that you have not produce a good piece of writing, you are probably missing the clear thought to write about.
Everyone has experienced the clarifying effects of getting something down on paper. The reason is simple. When you view something through several senses, you gain new perspectives from each one. Writing uses vision, touch and, if you read it to yourself, sound. Each sense enriches the experiences surrounding a concept that may have formerly been only vaguely specified somewhere inside your head.
If you're finding that your thinking about some idea is fuzzy and ill defined, try jotting your ideas down, in whatever form and order comes to mind. Look them over. Read them out loud. Write them out in different ways. Talk them over with friends and coworkers. You will soon find that you are thinking more clearly about them, too.
If you have been missing this aspect in your writing, you may re-look and take time to refine this art to suit your writing and redefine your prospect of being a good communicator. A good communicator will always be sought after in terms of demand in industry, education and any specific field of knowledge. Free advice is to hone this skill as soon as possible.
