Writing Skills Boston MA
Top Ten Items for Professional Writing Skills and Business Writing Skills Development
This article is from the English at English at Work Weblog.
When speaking of how to improve, or develop, professional writing skills, the first word that may come to mind is grammar, and when one mentions "grammar", one may also think of "errors" or "mistakes". Unfortunately, it's not that simple. Developing professional writing skills is not simply a matter of discovering one's "grammar errors" and learning how to correct them. Indeed, what one may identify as "grammar errors" may not be "grammar errors" as such. When we consider improving professional writing skills, we take a number of items into account.
Developing professional writing skills is not as simple as discovering and correcting one's "grammar errors" in an attempt not to make the same errors again. It's a good idea to take an analytical approach to understanding what's involved in professional writing skills development.
ESL speakers, or English language learners, are obviously a diverse group, and this is not to speak only of the country one comes from or what one's first language is. Each international professional has different purposes in writing and writes for different readers. As well, writing evaluations demonstrate diversity in skills, level, and ability. Therefore, improvement in professional writing skills will mean something different for each writer.
Grammar is definitely not the only concern, but I'll identify that area first. And I'll call it grammar awareness. I'll reserve making a list of "grammar errors" for another time.
1) Grammar Awareness: Not using an appropriate grammar structure, or, perhaps, not knowing that it exists, is one aspect of professional writing skills we take into account. When considering this area, we find that it's not always possible to simply provide a "correction". Quite often, we must provide a revision. This might also require a lesson in order to introduce a new idea to a writing student or refresh one's memory about a particular language item.
By grammar awareness, I don't mean "grammar knowledge" or simply producing writing free of errors. One must acquire passive knowledge of grammatical structures through exposure, or one must study, learn, and internalize grammatical structures in order to naturally recognize when to use them. This is where a teacher's knowledge comes in. A professional writing skills teacher has knowledge of grammatical structures and recognizes how to apply them to the development of professional writing skills.
2) Combining of too many ideas: Sometimes writers attempt to combine too many ideas into one sentence. Knowing when to stop one sentence and begin another one is key to producing coherent writing. If not simply appearing to be unprofessional, writing passages that lack cohesion could pose a minor challenge to readers. When we observe that one is combining too many ideas into one sentence, it may be a simple matter of replacing a comma with a period, or it may be necessary to revise a passage -- and then add correct punctuation.
3) Not combining ideas: Sometimes writers produce sentences that are too short. Too many short sentences make for a "choppy" and simple writing style, which may detract from the professional image of one's message. Professional writing should be clear and concise; however, this does not mean that professional writing should be simplistic. The measure of creativity involved in the logical combining of ideas brings us back to grammar awareness. Awareness of grammar structures is a key element in professional writing skills.
4) The illogical combining of ideas in sentences: Apart from combining too many ideas in one sentence, we sometimes find that writers combine ideas in sentences which do not logically go together. Clearly, this is not a matter of "making corrections" or "grammar".
5) Incorrect combining of words - lexical errors: It's a common misunderstanding that errors in writing mean "grammar errors". There are grammar errors to be sure. However, we cannot always attribute all errors to a particular point of English grammar. When this happens, we may find that an error is a "lexical error", or an error in the combining of words. Beyond grammar, how words go together - in English - can present a challenge to the development of professional writing skills.
6) Starting a new paragraph: It is important to recognize when it makes sense to start a new paragraph. Paragraphs divide writing into subtopics, which contributes to the ease with which one is able to follow longer writing passages.
7) Intelligibility - understanding one's communication: While at the professional level of writing skills development, intelligibility is not typically a problem, the combination of all the items listed here contribute to the intelligibility of one's writing, or the ease with which readers can understand one's writing.
8) Register, tone, and appropriate manners of expression: Just as these are important for professional speaking skills, they are also important points for professional writing skills.
A) Too much formality or too much informality can put people off.
B) The wrong manner of expression could convey an undesirable tone in one's writing, which could cause a misunderstanding.
C) While good business writing is straightforward and to the point, we may sometimes find that language which is too plain and too matter-of-fact can make one seem too impersonal. This largely depends on who one's readers are and the purpose of one's writing.
9) Using too many words and redundancy:
A) Once in while we'll notice that an idea or a passage requires fewer words. Using too many words to express an idea can leave readers somewhat impatient. Good business writing is concise and efficient. Bearing this in mind, please, refer to 8) Register, tone, and appropriate manners of expression - Keep in mind the purpose of your writing and your readers in order to maintain a balanced approach to your professional writing skills.
B) Redundancy: Repetition of an idea within a phrase or a sentence is simply not good style for any writing. Though it may easily go unnoticed by some readers, redundancy is best avoided in the interest of developing professional writing skills and business writing skills.
10) Grammar errors - not the same as grammar awareness: Here is another area in which an English language teacher's knowledge of English, and how English works, comes into play. Sometimes we can easily identify, classify, and isolate grammar errors. When we observe such errors we can easily point them out to writing students. We would then follow with a grammar lesson that uses language relevant to the student's profession, business, or work. It could be practical to direct the student's attention to online grammar tutorials or book-based grammar exercises. Then again, maybe not. It depends on the student, the class, and the purpose of the training course. Here's another possibility. While this may not be appealing to the least passionate English language trainers, teachers, and coaches amongst us, writing or using an original worksheet that allows the student to practice a particular grammar point could be a good idea. At this point, English language coaches and English language trainers are back to being - that's right; you guessed it - English language teachers.
Grammar, as it is relevant to English as a second language or English as a foreign language, is an area in which an English language teacher is expected to possess knowledge and skill. Some students have rather high expectations for this. They have questions, and they want answers. Some students want to know why. They want an explanation.
Conclusion: The development and improvement of professional writing skills is a process. Granted, some writing is easier to work with, and some writing is more difficult to work with. At the professional level, one may not expect developing and improving professional writing skills to be challenging and difficult to an extreme. However, given the ten items listed and defined in this article, one comes to understand that correcting writing could prove to be a difficult knot to untangle, depending on each writer's level of ability and skills.
Providing ESL speakers with corrections and revisions to their writing is important. Just the same, it is not the solution. English language teachers must guide their writing students in the process of developing and improving professional writing skills for business and work.