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LEARN TO WRITE
As I was typing what seemed like the hundredth email the other day, it dawned on me that what I do most often during work is write. Emails, memos, reports, letters you name it, the most common way to communicate these days is through writing. Even during meetings, there are documents and presentations that serve as the foundation for whatever it is that’s going to be discussed.
At several jobs I had after college I gained the reputation of being a good writer. It was strange to me that people would use a term “good writer” to describe the writing of memos or presentations—I always thought good writers were novelists and short story writers who used colorful sentences and lured us into their stories with immaculate prose. But here were people telling me that my reports were very clear and I synthesized information well, and after a few months my colleagues were asking me to look over their presentations.
I realized after a while that the only place I could have gained these good writing skills was college. I grew up in the Soviet Union, immigrated to the U.S. when I was in eighth grade, and had to learn English almost from scratch. My high school wasn’t a great one, and when I came to Wesleyan, my writing skills were adequate at best. When our econ prof assigned what was to be my first college thesis paper, I had very little clue about what a thesis was and how I was supposed to write a five page paper on a topic rather than answering a question.
It took a long time, lots of work, and even more frustration for me to learn how to organize my arguments, to form a strong thesis, to make sure that what I write is extremely clear and coherent, but by the time I graduated, I had a pretty good grasp of writing. This often excruciating process somehow even managed to help me learn to love writing and from time to time I toy with a short story or two. But what I expected least was that learning how to write college papers was going to translate into knowing how to write work documents and write them well.
But if you think about it, it makes a ton of sense. Even the shortest email has an introduction, a main point or a thesis, some evidence, arguments, or details, and a conclusion. And while your friends could care less how well your email is structured, your co-workers, bosses, and clients sure do. Good, clear writing comes through, and it makes a difference.
Learn how to write well. You’ll gain a skill that won’t ever go to waste, and you might even find a passion for writing you never thought you had.
Go >>> Back to NOTES FROM THE REAL WORLD
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