How To Improve Your Lousy Writing Skills In The Workplace FIRST HOPE MEDIA https://www.firsthope.biz If there’s one important reason why you need to write effectively in the workplace, it is this: the quality of your writing imprints a lasting impression on the reader. This reader may be your boss, a client, or a person who is ready to make a billion dollar business deal with you. Have you ever read a poorly-written document that made you lose interest right away? It was so poorly-written that you lost trust in the author and asked yourself why the author was wasting your time? How about those junk e-mails that sneak into your junk box like annoying cockroaches? You know the ones I’m referring to: the ones pitching vitamins, software, and sex aids. These e-mails are the biggest showcase of writing blunders, stricken to death with grammar mistakes, misspellings, and sloppy sentences. I doubt these e-mails pull a sale because their poor writing style immediately alienates the reader. What impression does your writing leave on your boss, clients, or co-workers? Does your writing alienate readers, cause you to lose sales or clients, or cost you job promotions? Or does your writing build streams of loyal readers, increase sales for the company, and help you earn six figures a year at your job? Whatever type of writing you do in the workplace, always know this reality: readers believe the quality of your writing reflects your skills, work ethics, and integrity as a person. If you write eloquently, clearly, and lively, the reader trusts you and you are able to build rapport quickly. If your writing is sloppy, disorganized, and riddled with errors, the reader assumes the rest of your work is flawed, your work ethics are flawed, and perhaps as a person you are flawed. Why should this reader waste his time reading the rest of your junk or even do business with you? This article provides fail-safe strategies to help refine your writing and help you to communicate with clarity, simplicity, and impact so you will never write junk again. You will learn five masterful steps to guide you in planning, writing, and refining an article; and you will learn how to avoid common writing mistakes. AIM! FIRE! FIRE! To become a superb writer, your first task is to establish your aim. Yiddish novelist, dramatist and essayist, Sholem Asch, once said, “Writing comes more easily if you have something to say.” What message do you want to convey with your writing? To establish your aim, ask yourself: 1) “Why am I writing this document?” 2) “What do I want to communicate?” 3) “Do I want to inform, educate, report, persuade, challenge, or entertain?” Developing your aim will help you to adopt the best writing style for your reader. For example, an educational document will likely be more formal than one written for entertaining. CONNECT WITH YOUR READERS To write effectively, you need to connect strongly with your readers. Ask yourself: 1) “For whom am I writing this? Will I be writing for colleagues, my supervisor, my team of employees, or our clients?” 2) “How much information do my readers need?” 3) “How familiar are my readers with the topic?” 4) “How much time do my readers have? Would my readers prefer a short, succinct presentation of facts and statistics, or more narration and exposition?” Knowing your audience will allow you to write content in a way that appeals to your readers. SHAPE YOUR DOCUMENT You know your aim. You know the people who will likely read your document. Now plan your document. What information will it contain? What information will most likely grab the reader and hold their interests? What points do you need to get across? Start with a rough outline of ideas. Then go through the outline and add more information and more detail. An outline will create the structure for your document. Soon enough your writing will come more easily, quickly, and with greater clarity. WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW BEST At this stage, read over your outline and write the first draft. Establish the main idea of the document and support your argument throughout. If a blank white page glares back at you like headlights, just start writing on whatever topic you know best. According to American novelist Jack London, “You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” Don’t worry about the sequence if the ideas come to you out of order. You can cut and paste later. WORDY WEIGHT LOSS If you have time, step away from the document. Come back to it later with a fresh mind. Now add material where needed. Trim away unnecessary sections. Refine the text to communicate what you want to say. Remember: less is more. Try not to repeat ideas. Repetition, unless necessary, is tiresome for the reader. Keep the piece moving along. Use a lively pace. Progress through your points efficiently. The following sections address some of the most common writing problems. Use these tips to write more clearly, effectively, and lively. I.) PUNCTUATION a) Apostrophes Do not use an apostrophe in the possessive form of “it.” Incorrect: Our department submitted it’s reports for 2005 last week. Correct: Our department submitted its reports for 2005 last week. Do not use apostrophes in the possessive forms “his,” “hers,” and “ours.” Incorrect: The window office is her’s. Correct: The window office is hers. Do not use apostrophes in plural nouns. Incorrect: How many new computer’s are we getting? Correct: How many new computers are we getting? b) Commas Do not connect two complete sentences with a comma. Incorrect: The meeting was cancelled, I finished my work early. Correct: The meeting was cancelled, so I finished my work early. Correct: Since the meeting was cancelled, I finished my work early. II.) MECHANICS a) Split Infinitives Do not insert words between “to” and the infinitive form of a verb. Incorrect: I was told we needed to slightly tighten the deadline. Correct: I was told we needed to tighten the deadline slightly. III.) SPELLING a) “A lot” is always two words. Incorrect: I have alot of work to do. Correct: I have a lot of work to do. b) “To” is a function word often used before the infinitive form of a verb (to go). c) “Too” is an adverb that means “excessively” (too difficult). d) “Two” denotes the number 2. Incorrect: This file cabinet is to heavy for me to move. Correct: This file cabinet is too heavy for me to move. e) “There” is an adverb indicating a place (over there). f) “Their” is a possessive word that shows ownership (their computers). g) “They’re” is the contraction form of “they are.” Incorrect: There results for this quarter were excellent. Correct: Their results for this quarter were excellent. Incorrect: Their working very hard today. Correct: They’re working very hard today. IV.) STYLE a) Sentence Variety To write more lively, vary sentence structure. Use alternate ways of beginning, and combine short sentences to create different sentence lengths. Before: I organized the files for all the new accounts this week. Then I created a more efficient labeling system. I color-coded everything. I made sure all paper files had been documented electronically. I put these files in the empty file cabinet. After: This week I organized the files for the new accounts and created a more efficient color-coded labeling system. After I documented all paper files electronically, I put these files in the empty file cabinet. V.) ACTIVE VOICE vs. PASSIVE VOICE The English language has two "voices": active voice (the subject performs an action); and passive voice (the subject is acted upon). In business communication, all good writers write in active voice. Lazy writers write in passive voice. Writing in active voice shortens your sentences and makes your writing sound more direct and formal. Examples: PASSIVE: The recipe book is read by her. ACTIVE: She reads the recipe book. PASSIVE: The radio announcement should be listened to by everyone. ACTIVE: Everyone should listen to the radio announcement. PASSIVE: The photo is being taken by the photographer. ACTIVE: The photographer is taking the photo. If you follow these guidelines, you’ll stop yourself from writing lousy in the workplace. Your writing will be lively, clear, and concise, and you will build rapport with readers. Perhaps it’s now time to e-mail your boss a perfectly-written e-mail requesting a salary raise?

Sorry if you've gotten this question before, but how do you write such good dialogue in your fics? I'm always impressed by how naturally they flow; they don't sound stilted, and they don't go into adverb loops like "she said X-ly / he responded Y-ly". Any other advice for would-be fanfic writers, sansaery in particular or just in general?

This is the first time I’ve ever gotten a question about my writing style and I’m thrilled! I’m going to start off with some general things and see if I have any Sansaery specific ones at the end.

Writing dialogue has always come fairly naturally to me. The key is understanding the way people speak in real life. It’s not the same as writing scene description or action. People use slang. People repeat themselves. People cut each other off midsentence. People stutter or change their minds about what they want to say. Writing with this in mind will help create personality for characters and keep the dialogue interesting.

You don’t want to go overboard with it, because then your characters will seem like caricatures and come off more cartoonish. Having a character stutter every other sentence, unless they are in the freezing snow, is overkill. But throwing in several stutters when someone is crying can show great depth of emotion. It reiterates that they are crying and makes it easier for a reader to imagine tears streaming down their face as they try to think of the next word. Having a character repeat themselves while ranting reveals passion, but having a character repeat themselves while just taking a walk with a friend becomes boring for a reader. Finding balance is key with those extra bits.

Word choice is the most important aspect of dialogue. A character who speaks in long, eloquent words creates a persona far removed from a character who speaks in slang. Both, however, speak with rhythm. Finding and maintaining a rhythm is what makes dialogue believable. Even with characters who speak eloquently, speeches are rare. Save those “speeches” for crucial moments.

Last fall my roommate was in a screenwriting class. One of her assignments was to eavesdrop on a conversation between people she did not know and write down their dialogue. It’s an exercise to see how people really talk. It can be incredibly useful to try that if you struggle writing dialogue. Again, you don’t want to veer to extremes here. If someone (like me) repeats “like” 7 times in a sentence, it can be painful and distracting for the reader. But throwing in a like or two in a paragraph may bring a touch of realism to your character’s speech.

Another thing you can try is reading the dialogue out loud after you have written it. Does it sound natural? Based on the context of emotions, would it sound better if a character said “I’m fine” versus “I am fine”?

My avoidance of adverbs probably stems from my training in journalism. As a journalist, you have to be concise with your words. Newspapers have a maximum number of words that they can print in each section, so you have to fit your words into that alotted space. That means, you have to cut flowery descriptions. You don’t have enough space to say “she said loudly” or “he mumbled angrily”.

The first way to address this is to choose vocal verbs that have strong connotations. Muttering, grumbling, mumbling, rumbling, uttering. All of these words are used when someone is speaking under their breath or in a low voice. Each one has a slightly different connotation. Rumble gives the implication that it’s said in a deep voice. You can practically feel the hint of a growl underlying the voice. Mumble implies something said that is difficult to understand, almost slurred, usually shy or intimidated. Grumble is used to describe annoyance or frustration. Muttering is similar to grumbling. In a case like this, using the two to switch up your verb choice will prevent your writing from being redundant.

Another way to address the adverb problem is to not even say “he said” or “she said”. Instead, describe what the character is doing. No one stays one hundred percent still during a conversation. They glance to the side when they’re nervous or pick at their nails. They may twirl hair around their finger when they’re flirting or lightly brush their fingers against someone’s arm. In this way, readers can read what the intended emotional reaction is supposed to be. Readers are smart. They do not always need to be told someone is mad. If a character is cursing (you can use exclamation points to emphasize as well!) and they pound a fist on the table, the reader knows that he or she is angry. Do not tell the reader, but show them.

Now on to Sansaery things. The most important thing is nailing down their personalities with dialogue. Margaery is flirty.and intelligent. I typically express her flirtatious nature with witty comments and pet names for Sansa. If you choose to use nicknames, stick with a couple. Don’t try to give too many, unless that is revealing something else in their personality.

How you write Sansa can be tricky. If you want to write a Sansa that is very much like pre-King’s Landing Sansa, she speaks a little snobbishly. Having her fight with Arya is always a great way to find that proper Sansa voice. Sansa after being in King’s Landing for a bit is more down to earth. She still speaks well educated, but may not use such egotistical language. Bad ass Ramsay killing Sansa is colder and more detached. She’s still warm and loving with her loved ones, but speaks with more authority and less emotion around non-family and lovers/friends. Alayne Stone would likely use a little more slang because of the “bastard” nature. I try to keep it subtle like having my Alayne call Margaery “Babe” instead of a more cutesie nickname that an earlier version of Sansa might use.

I hope this little rant was helpful and let me know if there’s any confusion or if you just want to talk more!!