The Importance of Writing in Life and Your Career

The three basic skills taught in schools since the 19th century have deteriorated significantly in public life in the US over the past 50+ years. While all three are equally important, student capabilities in reading and math seem to get the most attention in the news. However, while I agree those two legs of the tripod are important, without good writing skills our ability to think and communicate in life and at work is significantly hampered.

There will always be occasions in your life and in your career where you will need to write well. Here are some examples, as well as what you’ll get out of improving your writing.

Non-knowledge workers need to write too

I’m using the term “non-knowledge workers” to mean people whose job doesn’t involve working on a computer over 80% of their workday. While computer work may be required, they can accomplish the vast majority of their work without one. This could mean a tradesman, a salesperson, a specialized equipment operator, or anything else.

While non-knowledge workers may need to write less frequently as part of their job than non-knowledge workers, there are still many circumstances where it’s important, including official communications within the company and outside of it, including:

• Job applications
• Job acceptance
• Negotiations with others inside the organization
• Customer communications
• Negotiations with vendors
• Technical specifications or requirements
• Persuasion of peers, subordinates, or management to make changes
• Resignations
• Documentation of work techniques, processes, or procedures

No matter what your occupation, writing is crucial. Improving your writing will enable you to excel in your profession through clarity and efficiency.

Knowledge workers are writing a lot

I classify “knowledge workers” as anyone using a computer as part of their primary job functions where they might be significantly hampered, if not outright incapable, of performing their job without a computer.

Similar to non-knowledge workers, knowledge workers need to write for all the same reasons, but typically in far larger amounts. These written communications might also include:

• Internal emails giving directions or feedback
• External communications with partners
• Legal and personnel-related messages
• Documentation of most parts of their job, informal or formal

With knowledge workers so dependent on written communication, it’s obvious why strong writing skills are crucial. Knowledge workers may see an even greater return on their investment in improving their writing skills than non-knowledge workers.

Everyone needs to write in their personal life

Regardless of what you do to make money, writing is equally important in your personal life. Here are some examples of areas you find yourself writing:

• Life events (birthdays, anniversaries, condolences, etc.)
• Social media
• Messages to loved ones
• Persuasive letters to companies (insurance benefits, etc.)
• Persuasive letters to schools (acceptance to a school, opinion on a policy, etc.)
• Legal letters
• Notes to yourself and others

If you can’t communicate clearly in your personal life, you’ll struggle to be heard, to be listened to, and to grow.

What you’ll get out of improving your writing

Ok, so we tend to write a lot in our lives, even if we don’t really think we do. But why bother improving your writing? What do we get out of it other than maybe using some bigger words once in a while?

Writing does far more than just make us sound more educated. Here a few areas that will improve when you work on your writing skills:

• You will sound more intelligent. Have you ever read a book about the American Civil War (or any conflict between 1800 and 1950), and come across letters written by soldiers? Did you know they often didn’t have an education past 6th grade? But man could they write! While education doesn’t necessarily result in good writing, good writing is associated with education. So if you write well, you will sound more intelligent to others.
• It will help you think clearly. Writing forces you to organize your thoughts into a coherent pattern. The first time you’re regurgitating words on a page, they won’t be the clearest, but as you reread what you’ve written you’ll make changes, move words around, cut words out, add words, or generally reorganize the structure. These changes force your brain to think in a more structured pattern, resulting in more logical thought processes that improve over time.
• It will help you be more persuasive. If you’ve ever tried winning a verbal argument, or a debate, then you know that how you structure your evidence and your argument is important. If you want to persuade someone, you are best prepared by writing down your thoughts. Writing down your facts and your reasoning helps you think through that reasoning and will produce better arguments.
• It will help you express yourself. Do you have trouble communicating? Regardless of the reason why, practicing writing will improve your ability to communicate your thoughts. Like any practiced skill, it will improve over time and you’ll find it easier to speak. You may even find that you are better at communicating in writing than you are in speech!
• It will improve your reading. This may or may not be obvious, but writing requires reading. A lot of it. You read your own writing, and you’ll start paying more attention to the writing of others. This means you’ll learn more, not just of how to write, but about the world.
• You will be more resilient. The less dependent you are on others to write on your behalf, the more independent and resilient you will be. As you practice, make sure you practice with different types of writing. Creative writing is fine, but writing to a school, with others in your organization, or to companies about complaints or compliments, will give you a breadth of useful experience.

How to improve your writing

Even if you didn’t pay attention in English class growing up, and if English is your second language then you already know this, you can always improve your writing. It’s not hard, per se, but it does take work. That work is mostly in the form of practicing.

Here are the three primary steps to improve your writing:

• Find an editor. Find someone you know who is a good writer, at school, at church, or at work, whatever, and ask them if they’d be willing to help edit the things you write. Obviously you won’t ask them to edit everything you write, but work out with them just the kind of things they’ll help you with, and how they’ll provide this help to you. I recommend using a tool that allows for redlining and commenting, like Microsoft Word or Google Docs, so the changes the editor makes are apparent, and they can comment inline to indicate why they made the changes they did. You may also find you need multiple editors, depending on the type of document you’re writing. And as you progress in your skills, you may need to seek out more advanced editors too.
• Write with purpose. You have to decide to write things. Instead of not thinking about the writing you’re doing, think deliberately about what you’re writing and how you’re writing it. Put more thought and effort into those things, whether or not you decided to use your editor to help improve what you wrote.
• Write more. Practice, practice, practice! It won’t happen quickly, but if you write with purpose, and use your editor along the way, you’ll notice a stark difference from when you started. I made a determined effort to improve my writing in my early and mid twenties, and I saw drastic improvements in the first six months, then slow and steady improvements for years after that. And like every other skill, if you don’t practice it very often you’ll get rusty. But like riding a bike, it can easily come back to you.

Conclusion

Writing isn’t something you’re ever done improving. Like exercise, it’s something you will be doing for the rest of your life. If you work to continually improve your writing skills, you’ll see benefits in every aspect of your life, from your career to your personal relationships.

So make the change today, and start working to improve your writing!