What Are Writing Skills And Why Are They Important

Writing as with any other skill is a useful tool in organizations. It is not just a skill for writers only, rather it cuts across many professions and positions in the organization. If you desire to know more about writing skills, and how to improve your writing skills, you are where you ought to be.

For instance, most employees need report writing skills. Managers may also need to send a written proposal through email. Aspiring entrepreneurs need to write business plans before commencing their business in order to ensure their success.

Furthermore, the ability to write concisely and clearly is an important aspect of communication, as such, having writing skills in your arsenal is worthwhile. Moreso, some individuals make a living out of their writing skills.

This article explains what writing skills are, their importance, jobs that require writing skills, and how you can improve your writing skills. Follow me.

Definition of writing skills

Writing skills are the abilities and knowledge to express one’s thoughts or ideas proficiently in written form. Writing skills fall into hard and current skills.

It becomes a hard skill when it is the basic skill for a job. For instance, writing is a prerequisite skill for journalism and content writing. These types of jobs require that you possess an adept level of expertise in writing.

On the other hand, writing as a soft skill is a subset of communication skills. Writing is a regular function in the workplace usually needed for writing emails, reports, proposals, projects, etc. Hence, employees need to be able to clearly communicate their ideas through writing.

Importance Of Writing Skills

Employees with prolific writing skills within the organization can help the organization succeed in many ways. Let’s consider these ways:

1. Craft a winning proposal

Employees who possess excellent writing skills can come up with proposals that can help an organization beat other competitors to land a major business deal.

They have the ability to write with communicating in an understandable way. Not only that, they can captivate the heart of investors and get them interested in what they’re about to tell them through their writing abilities.

2. Improving the organization’s public image and perception

Very few things matter the most when it comes to the organization’s public image and perception.

You don’t want to seem like an unprofessional organization in the eyes of clients, investors, and customers. Hence, you need to be able to communicate effectively when you send out emails, newsletters, or publish a feed-in print.

Your use of punctuation, conciseness, precision, and vocabulary, among others, matters. The fact is you never can tell the caliber of people who read these messages, perhaps, you may even know them.

Hence, you’d need someone who has proven knowledge and abilities in writing to craft carefully and excellently whatever you will be sending out to the public.

3. Increasing customer acquisition and sales

Words are powerful weapons for convincing and persuading. Those who are able to use them well can tilt the attention of prospects toward an organization.

Furthermore, some individuals are gifted storytellers. Their ability to tell your brand stories or write a captivating sales message can make a big difference in the number of patronages that the organization gets.

A typical example is copywriters, who have knowledge of psychology, sales, and can combine this knowledge and their ability to write to compel customers to buy a product or take an action.

4. Effective communication within the organization

Managers who are able to write precisely would definitely stand out in passing out messages through emails or any other writing avenues within the organization.

Furthermore, clear communication through writing is important to avoid misunderstandings and unnecessary mistakes. You don’t want employees to think that you mean “wet the edge” when you actually mean “whet the edge”

In the same vein, writing is an essential ingredient for communication between employees in the organization, particularly in jobs that involve regular emailing, writing of documents, etc.

Jobs That Require Writing Skills

Asides from that writing skills are useful across many professions, some careers are basically edged on the skill.

Here are some professions to consider if you possess excellent writing skills

1. Content writing

This is the ability to write words to entertain, educate, or inform an audience. Content writers write articles, blog posts, and social media posts.

2. Copywriting

Copywriters use persuasive words to convince prospects to buy a product, click a link, etc. They also have knowledge of psychology, sales, and marketing.

They are valuable assets to organizations because they help increase leads, patronage, and ultimately sales.

3. Journalism

Journalists are professionals who gather, access, create and present news and information. Unlike other writing skills highlighted, practicing this career requires a university or college degree in journalism.

4. Editing and Proofreading

Proofreaders have excellent attention to detail. They can easily spot spelling errors, punctuation errors, etc. Editors on the other hand can correct core writing issues such as sentence construction, improve the tone of text, clarity, and readability.

5. Resume and Cover letter writing

Some individuals make money by leveraging their writing skills to craft well-structured resumes and cover letters for job applicants.

A good CV must be free of ambiguity and error. It must equally be precise.

Also, you must know how to inject relevant keywords relating to the job you’re applying for while still ensuring that it is meaningful and convincing.

As such, crafting an excellent resume or cover letter also requires excellent writing skills.

6. Research Analyst

Aside from being able to carry out research, research analysts also need good writing skills for reporting the result of their research effectively.

Important Elements Of Writing

Here are some of the most elements or qualities that a great writer must possess:

1. Precision

Precision is your ability to communicate what you ought to communicate in an understandable way. It is the capacity to write out what you mean, and make your audience understand what it is at first reading without ambiguity.

One of the issues with written communication is that sometimes audiences tend to receive a different message apart from what was intended because of poor writing skills.

Therefore, you need to make your writing precise by using the best words that communicate your intentions. Don’t let your audience think ‘it is a cup’ when you actually meant ‘it is a plate’.

2. Your writing should be concise

Concision is your ability to slim fit words while still conveying their meaning. Let’s just say it is the ability to transform a long sentence into short words.

For example, “God knows all things” can be written as “God is omniscient”

“When you give John orders, he doesn’t obey” can be rewritten as “John is insubordinate”

You will observe that the number of words changed from more to lesser. This also improves the tone and flare of the sentence. Therefore, you should ensure to use the right words that fit the scenario and don’t leave a word in your script that could still be further shortened.

3. Your writing should be error-free

This is as simple as it is. Don’t let your script be full of errors. People will either not read it or get tired of reading it.

One way to reduce error is to give your work a second eye to review or employ the services of a proofreader. This is because simple punctuation can change the meaning of a word.

For example, “Jane may resign” is not the same as “Jane May resign”. Also, “The snake was killed by Bruno” isn’t the same as “The snake was killed, by Bruno”.

It is important to note that simple stuff like punctuation and capital letters can make all the difference

4. Your writing should be free of ambiguity

Articles, writings, or scripts are better when they are free of jargon and cliches. Rather learn to use simple words that convey the same meaning.

This not only helps the readability; it also makes the content enjoyable. Filling your writings with bogus words makes them lifeless. Also, readers say have to consult the dictionary again and again. This can be frustrating and make readers lose interest.

How To Improve Your Writing Skills

1. Make your introduction captivating

Writing to captivate means that you are trying to win the heart of your audience and get them interested in what you’re about to tell them. That is the essence of the introduction.

First impressions matter so you may have to make a strong impression. There are ways to do it and one good way to do this is to start with a resounding quote.

Additionally, you may start with a statistic or start in a story-like manner. This will help build your reader’s interest from the beginning.

Hence, the first five to ten seconds of your piece can make all the difference. Also, avoid making a mistake in the beginning by all means as this can soil all your efforts even if you’ve written a masterpiece.

2. Ensure clarity in ideas

Your piece should give clarity to your audience. You have to write in clear words. You must make things as clear as possible, as comprehensive as possible, and well broken down in such a way that your audience can understand.

Furthermore, your piece should follow a progressive thought, that is, it must flow from sentence to sentence. Else, you will leave readers confused and stressed about whether they missed a part.

3. Write a conclusion

The conclusion is a concise summary of the body of the content. Using a conclusion helps to remind your reader of what they must have read after exhausting themselves.

Furthermore, you should use a call to action in your summary. This helps to bring them to a place of responsibility.

By telling your readers what they ought to do after reading the content, you are bringing them to a place where they can act with a motive.

4. Read widely

Reading eliminates ignorance and knowledge is the panacea to low self-esteem and feelings of inadequacy.

Therefore, reading always broadens your knowledge and enhances your thought process. Writing requires that your thought process flows well enough, also, it builds your muscle memory.

Furthermore, by constantly reading well-structured books or articles, you see how others write too. Your brain internalizes writing flow and pattern making you a better writer.

However, if you are finding it difficult to read, you can also go for audiobooks or watch a lot of videos.

5. Write every day

To build your muscle and stay fit you need to exercise every day. In the same vein, to improve your writing skills, you need to write every day.

It could be rewriting a piece you admire or picking a topic that you love and writing about it. The more you do this, the better you become.

6. Enroll for a writing or English language course

Another way to sharpen your writing skills is by enrolling in a paid or free course. Furthermore, you can take an English language course to learn basic English concepts like grammar, punctuation, and article usage, among others.

FAQs

Are writing skills compulsory for all employees?

No. However, those who possess writing skills can communicate effectively with written words.

Why are writing skills important?

Possessing writing skills helps you in writing emails, reports, or proposals.

What are some examples of writing skills?

Examples of writing skills include report writing, content writing, editing, proofreading, etc.

Conclusion

As said earlier, writing skills help employees and managers within an organization to communicate their ideas clearly.

Furthermore, applicants who can demonstrate excellent writing skills when applying for a job can gain an advantage over others.

In addition, to improve your writing skills try to read well-structured articles and books, and write every day. Also, ensure your piece is free of error, and ambiguity. Also, precision and conciseness are key.

Lastly, you may check the article on what are high-income skills to see skills that can change your life forever.

I hope this article helped. Thanks for reading.