Improving Your Written Communications

Written communications lie at the heart of all successful businesses and creating good documents, whether e-mail, memos or reports, is a core skill for every manager.

When we write documents, every word counts. The written words we use not only express our thoughts, the nuances contained within the words provide the colour and shape to the messages. The words we choose can make or break our working relationships in our businesses. Ask the experts for a definition and they'll tell you that good writing should be clear and concise, direct, uses plain English and contains no jargon.

In practice, it can be difficult to know whether or not you're using jargon or if your English is sufficiently plain. The best measure of good writing is to put yourself in the shoes of the reader and ask yourself "will my reader get my message?". When you write to someone, remember that everything you write will create an effect on the reader.

The words you choose and your writing style will affect the impact on the reader. In many cases, the impact may not be measurable but will almost certainly affect their impression of you and your organisation.

Remember, also, what you want the result or impact to be on the reader. It may not always be possible to achieve the desired result from one document. In your written documents, concentrate on the result you want taking care not to overwhelm you reader with unnecessary information.

Understanding Your Reader

First of all, your reader is always busy and is constantly bombarded with letters, reports and email. This means that you have to grab your reader’s attention immediately. Get to the point straight away with no lengthy opening or introduction. A good example of attention grabbing is to look at how journalists write news articles. The first sentence always tells you the message and the rest of the text then fills out the details of where, when, who, how and why.

Never forget that your reader is not stupid and will always see through your text when you use words to conceal obvious truths or make wild or unsubstantiated claims. So, for example, make sure that that your “free” offer is genuinely free.

Your reader may not have knowledge about your subject but you must always assume that he/she is intelligent They, like you, will always react badly if they think that their intelligence is being insulted by your communication. Your reader will always try to read between the lines.

When you read, you absorb the basic information but your mind also interprets the words, looking for hidden meanings and secret agendas. You also test your interpretation of the words against your own knowledge of the world. So, not only is the reader receiving your message but is also subconsciously asking “why have I been sent this communication?”, “how much of this should I believe?” and “what should I do about this?”

Once you understand how your readers react to your correspondence, you can change your writing style to improve the effect of your communication. Humour, understatement, similes and metaphors all add colour to your message and help to build the relationship between you and your readers.

Ralph Leishman would be delighted to discuss his ideas with you and you can contact him by emailing him at  Ralph.Leishman@4-consulting.com

Ralph is a director of 4-consulting, click here to view his profile.