Written Communication Skills
Guidelines
•Don't write if you are angry or upset.
•Remember that you are writing to other people.
• Feelings are hard to communicate through writing.
• Everything you write can be used against you.
• Be sensible when you evaluate the contents of information you receive.
• read you emails to remove misspellings and unclear sentences.
Smileys or emoticons
Smileys and emoticons are used in written forms of communication to represent emotions and/or facial expressions of the author which are often lost in the process due to a lack of human emotion being easily conveyed through text.
:-) = emoticon = smiley
Key messages
Summarize the intent of a particular piece of writing in one sentence and you have the beginning of your key message. In effect you’re asking yourself: “What is the one thing I want my readers to know, to consider, to think about?” The key message is what it is you’re trying to deliver to your audience.
Grammar and spelling
It is important that you use correct grammar and spelling in your written communication as by using either incorrectly it makes people question the validity of what you’re saying ad doesn’t make you seem smart like you want to appear.
Structure
Depending on what you’re writing the structure will vary. Let’s say you’re writing a report.
Reports are always presented in sections and subsections since they contain a lot of information which needs to be organised in a way that makes sense to the reader.
Sections are often numbered and long reports should include a title page and then a table of contents which lists the section headings and subheadings, preferably with page numbers.
Writing something else would require a different structure to be received effectively.
Identifying relevance
It is important in written communication that you express clearly relevant information to the topic you’re discussing. It should be easy to find amongst all you have written so the reader can access the main relevant parts.
Proofreading
When proofreading a document, you should first read it slowly and carefully to determine whether or not it communicates the message. If the title or the introductory paragraph do not clearly signal the intent of the paper or if the paragraphs which follow do not relate to the introduction then you haven’t wrote effectively.
Capitalisation
The idea with capitalisation is to make your sentences clear. At the beginning of each sentence the first letter should be capitalised. This will set out your work clearly and it will look more professional, if that’s the look you are going for.
Another use for capitalisation is for emphasis, you could capitalise the words or letters within a piece of written work and this would emphasise your opinion.
Alternative viewpoints
If you have alternate viewpoints in an argument, the audience will be able to come to a conclusion on their own based on the information that they have been given. It is important to have alternative viewpoints in a speech so that you are able to give the audience a good idea to what it is that you are saying and also so that they have both sides of the argument. If you do not do this, the argument is biased and the audience will not be able to come to a reasonable conclusion because they may not have all of the information that may be required, only the side you are biased towards.
Note taking
You should take notes so that you do not forget the information that you have heard. Information that you can get from notes can be very useful and can be short, yet informative. Writing notes is important because if you do not, you may forget parts of what you have heard. If you forget the important parts of a speech, you may not fully understand the topic.
Guidelines
•Don't write if you are angry or upset.
•Remember that you are writing to other people.
• Feelings are hard to communicate through writing.
• Everything you write can be used against you.
• Be sensible when you evaluate the contents of information you receive.
• read you emails to remove misspellings and unclear sentences.
Smileys or emoticons
Smileys and emoticons are used in written forms of communication to represent emotions and/or facial expressions of the author which are often lost in the process due to a lack of human emotion being easily conveyed through text.
:-) = emoticon = smiley
Key messages
Summarize the intent of a particular piece of writing in one sentence and you have the beginning of your key message. In effect you’re asking yourself: “What is the one thing I want my readers to know, to consider, to think about?” The key message is what it is you’re trying to deliver to your audience.
Grammar and spelling
It is important that you use correct grammar and spelling in your written communication as by using either incorrectly it makes people question the validity of what you’re saying ad doesn’t make you seem smart like you want to appear.
Structure
Depending on what you’re writing the structure will vary. Let’s say you’re writing a report.
Reports are always presented in sections and subsections since they contain a lot of information which needs to be organised in a way that makes sense to the reader.
Sections are often numbered and long reports should include a title page and then a table of contents which lists the section headings and subheadings, preferably with page numbers.
Writing something else would require a different structure to be received effectively.
Identifying relevance
It is important in written communication that you express clearly relevant information to the topic you’re discussing. It should be easy to find amongst all you have written so the reader can access the main relevant parts.
Proofreading
When proofreading a document, you should first read it slowly and carefully to determine whether or not it communicates the message. If the title or the introductory paragraph do not clearly signal the intent of the paper or if the paragraphs which follow do not relate to the introduction then you haven’t wrote effectively.
Capitalisation
The idea with capitalisation is to make your sentences clear. At the beginning of each sentence the first letter should be capitalised. This will set out your work clearly and it will look more professional, if that’s the look you are going for.
Another use for capitalisation is for emphasis, you could capitalise the words or letters within a piece of written work and this would emphasise your opinion.
Alternative viewpoints
If you have alternate viewpoints in an argument, the audience will be able to come to a conclusion on their own based on the information that they have been given. It is important to have alternative viewpoints in a speech so that you are able to give the audience a good idea to what it is that you are saying and also so that they have both sides of the argument. If you do not do this, the argument is biased and the audience will not be able to come to a reasonable conclusion because they may not have all of the information that may be required, only the side you are biased towards.
Note taking
You should take notes so that you do not forget the information that you have heard. Information that you can get from notes can be very useful and can be short, yet informative. Writing notes is important because if you do not, you may forget parts of what you have heard. If you forget the important parts of a speech, you may not fully understand the topic.