On Good Writing Skills

Jeffrey Phillips hits the point when he says “Writing well is an underappreciated skill“. I fully agree. Ability to write well is one of the most important skills one should have, especially in IT/software where paradigms of work have changed with internet and offshore outsourcing. On projects, people communicate requirements, plans, decisions, expectations and issues in writing – and clear/concise writing coupled with right perspective and little bit of common sense can work wonders in communicating effectively.

Jeff states:

“Too many times in our slap-dash, get it out quick world, we sacrifice meaning and directness in our communications.”

“If we can’t communicate clearly and concisely, then we can’t expect others to work effectively and efficiently in tandem with us.  Since most of the work we do is sharing and exchanging knowledge, good communication and good writing should be essential to our work.  However, we’ve become comfortable and lazy with our writing and created a challenge for communication when one should not exist.”

How true! Unclear and poorly written words cost a lot of time, money and productivity.  Poor documentation/writing is a major turn-off.

On that note, two of my all time favorite resources for tips on writing great emails are:

– Writing Sensible Email Messages at 43Folders.com.
– The Effective Emailer – another gem from Guy Kawasaki.

Enjoy Writing!