Practical Tips to Improve Your Professional Writing
Writing can be scary, especially when others are going to read it. As a former writing tutor and consultant, I’ve experienced people feeling generally insecure about their writing abilities. But I guarantee your writing is not bad, or even close. It’s like hearing your recorded voice played back to you: You hate it, but no one else does.
Below are some practical tips that can help improve your professional writing. Some will be concepts, some will be things you can actually apply, but as with all writing be sure to take what works for you and leave what doesn’t.
Spelling and Grammar
This might seem obvious, but also not what you think. Correct spelling shows your thoughtfulness in ensuring your email, presentation, proposal, etc. is carefully proofread. With most text entry tools having a spelling checker, it shouldn’t be too difficult to catch typos or the words we all struggle to spell correctly.
Grammar these days is more subjective. Oxford comma or not? (I personally prefer it.) Comma after dependent clauses? Comma before coordinating conjunctions? My best advice is to use your best judgment. If you read the document back aloud and naturally pause or take a breath, add a comma. You’re probably right. No one is reading your proposal combing through it for grammatical errors.
What you need to avoid is missing end punctuation, overusing uncommon punctuation marks such as colons, semi-colons, and em dashes. They can be distracting if used too often.
Active Verbs
If you utilize Grammarly, you might receive a notification stating “passive voice.” That’s because “active voice” provides clarity, concision, and directness. Walden University has a strong resource on active and passive voice.
Here’s an example.
Active: I conducted a study on cloning pigs for heart transplants.
Passive: A study on cloning pigs for heart transplants was conducted by me.
Filler Words
Filler words can clog your sentences and make your writing appear less confident. Bookmark Grammarly’s resource on filler words! The webpage goes into detail with examples you’ll find beneficial.
Here’s a list of some common filler words:
- just
- that
- very
- really
Know Your Audience
Your audience will determine the tone of your message. Your medium is also vital to consider too. For instance, you want to make instructional materials lighter and more conversational in tone, which makes them approachable and engaging. If you’re drafting a proposal for an executive, you want to lean more into professionalism and follow form.
The University of Maryland discusses writing for an audience in depth in their article Writing for an Audience.
The filler words above aren’t all bad and unnecessary. They can help with your voice, but be mindful of using a variety of words to get your point across. Hearing repeated words can be distracting.
All that being said: Your audience determines what rules are appropriate to follow and which can be bent.