Tuesday, June 9, 2009

5 Helpful Hints to Better Communication in Writing

Miscommunication happens all the time. A lot of it can be laughable. Most often, however, conflict or issues will arise. Some of it can be detrimental to your business or family!

Recently, I wrote an email to my EPMA colleague, Mary Ann and some dates got mixed up because I did not write clearly what I was trying to say. It was interesting because my first reaction was, "She didn't read what I wrote." But that really wasn't accurate. Even though what I wrote was clear in my head, it didn't come across clearly to her. My bad. Before I said anything I looked at what I wrote from her point of view and it was NOT clear at all. I apologized instead of blaming. Luckily, it was not serious and we could laugh about it.

In communication, it is BOTH parties responsibility to understand the message but most often there is blame. Either we say, "you didn't tell me" or "you don't listen/read." Both are right and both are wrong.

Now, I am not the best writer. I consider myself a good writer but by no means am I an excellent writer. I aspire and work on it constantly. Being a good communicator is the utmost important in business. It showcases your credibility. If you communicate poorly then you are seen as less credible in the business world and vice verse.Today, with the sheer amount of writing that we do, whether it is emails, blogs, websites, brochures, case studies or old fashioned business letters - your abilities are on display.


  1. First and foremost. Make sure your sentence structure is correct, especially watch for any misplaced modifiers (i.e. "Last night I dreamt I shot an elephant in my pajamas. Why he was wearing my pajamas I'll never know.") and typing their or there for they're, etc.

  2. www.drgrammar.org is a great website to help when you are writing. It is a collection of FAQ's regarding grammar and spelling.

  3. I also recommend a writing class - for many of us it's been several years since we last took a class in writing and it's not like a bicycle, there are many things we forget if we don't practice. Look to your local community college for a class or workshop.

  4. For goodness sake, PLEASE have someone proof read important documents that you hand out for marketing or to sell as a product. I recently received some training materials that has typos and missed words! I paid almost $1000 dollars for the materials! (She's an attorney, too!)

  5. The most important, however, is remembering to be clear and concise. Less is more.



Happy communicating and before you blame others for not listening or reading - make sure you are clear in YOUR writing or talking.



Cheers, Lorin

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