Today, people are using very different writing styles, not just what you learned in school from your English teacher. Informal writing has changed. Text messaging, in particular, has caused us to think in terms of brevity of communication. But the real risk in brevity is that you are going to miss things and you will not be able to fully convey what you want to say, particularly within a business environment.

Getting exposed to poor writing is a big source of frustration for many people who work in professional fields. And there are errors and risks to people and to systems if we can’t communicate well in terms of what we know or instructions that we need to give other people.

The ability to write fluently in an easily understood manner is not going to go out of style. There are people who see typos and get focused on the typos and say, “Oh wait a minute, let me look at that word, it doesn’t look right. Oh, she spelled that wrong.” Poor writing makes us take a few seconds away what we are reading in order to filter that through the editor in our minds. When writing is done beautifully, you don’t notice it; when it’s done poorly it jumps out and it distracts you from the message.

Tips for Improving Your Writing Skills
1. Do a lot of reading. Sit with a book either in paper form or on an electronic reader like a Kindle or Ipad. Notice how the author forms sentences. Do the words flow? Exposure to good writing of people who are fluent in the language improves your skills. Conversely, reading poorly written material is painful.
2. Write a report or essay. Set your material aside for a day and then proofread and edit it. Look for places where you can compress the sentences, improve word flow, and improve clarity.
3. Ask someone with good writing skills to be a copyeditor to help you improve. A copyeditor improves word flow, in addition to proofreading. A copyeditor will take your material and rearrange it so that it flows better. This person improves the language, grammar, and word usage.
4. Study how the copyeditor changed your material. Incorporate those changes into your writing style.
5. Take a writing course or an English writing composition course at a local community college or local college, or audit the course if you don’t want to take it as a matriculated student.
6. It is important to remember you can always improve. Learn from others’ writing or critiques of your writing. Develop a thick skin and graciously accept criticism so you can learn from it.
7. Read books on writing. One of my favorites is Eats Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss, a truly funny book about grammar. Also read The Language of Success by Tom Sant or Plain Style: Techniques for Simple, Concise, Emphatic Business Writing by Richard Lauchman.

Patricia Iyer MSN RN LNCC has been a legal nurse consultant for 24 years. She is president of Med League Support Services, Inc. and Patricia Iyer Associates. She is the author or editor of over 125 books, chapters, articles case studies, and online courses. Along with Dana Jolly and Angela Duke Haynes, she is presenting a webinar course called Polish Your Writing Skills on February 1 and 8, 2012. See www.patiyer.com for details.