Writing effectively is essential for communication in the business, online and personal realms, but few can truly do it well. Sure, everyone thinks that writing is easy because they can put pen to paper and make words out of pen strokes. But when it comes to effectively communicating what one is feeling or what must be done to accomplish a task, it is another story entirely. There is a vast difference between being able to write and being able to write effectively. If you want to know where it goes wrong for most people, here are the most common missteps that prevent effective written communications:
Not Considering the Audience
Some people hear the word "audience", and they confine it to books or movies, but every form of writing has an audience, and it is the first and most important thing that the writer must understand as he prepares to communicate. Take, as an example, an instruction manual for how to hook up a DVD player. One with a vast knowledge of the inner and outer workings of the DVD player must realize that the entire world is a target audience. And that world is filled with people that have either an advanced or an incredibly limited understanding. In order to communicate effectively with the target audience, a manual writer must make things very clear and succinct, careful not to leave out any steps or assume that one segment of the audience will have the knowledge that another segment does. Yet lots of very smart people are not effective writers because they overlook this all important component.
Not Proofreading What They Have Written
Behind not considering your audience, this is probably the second biggest obstacle to effective writing. Many times, the writer assumes that he got everything right because he knew what he was going to say in his head, and he failed to realize that there was a disconnect somewhere between what he thought and what was written. Proofreading is essential to effective writing, even for the best writers out there, because it forces the writer to slow down and reconsider whether or not he is presenting his information in the best manner possible.
If you want to learn how to write effectively, you need to realize that it is about more than knowing how to write or having the intelligence. It is about holding your audience and your words up to closer scrutiny and making them connect with one another.
By Darren W Chow
Not Considering the Audience
Some people hear the word "audience", and they confine it to books or movies, but every form of writing has an audience, and it is the first and most important thing that the writer must understand as he prepares to communicate. Take, as an example, an instruction manual for how to hook up a DVD player. One with a vast knowledge of the inner and outer workings of the DVD player must realize that the entire world is a target audience. And that world is filled with people that have either an advanced or an incredibly limited understanding. In order to communicate effectively with the target audience, a manual writer must make things very clear and succinct, careful not to leave out any steps or assume that one segment of the audience will have the knowledge that another segment does. Yet lots of very smart people are not effective writers because they overlook this all important component.
Not Proofreading What They Have Written
Behind not considering your audience, this is probably the second biggest obstacle to effective writing. Many times, the writer assumes that he got everything right because he knew what he was going to say in his head, and he failed to realize that there was a disconnect somewhere between what he thought and what was written. Proofreading is essential to effective writing, even for the best writers out there, because it forces the writer to slow down and reconsider whether or not he is presenting his information in the best manner possible.
If you want to learn how to write effectively, you need to realize that it is about more than knowing how to write or having the intelligence. It is about holding your audience and your words up to closer scrutiny and making them connect with one another.
By Darren W Chow
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