Writing is one of your most essential on-the-job tools

Most of us didn’t grow up wanting to be writers. Ok, I did and I am, but most of you didn’t want to be writers when you grew up. You wanted to do other things like work with people and support their development in human resources, or buy and sell stock, or manage real estate. You wanted to do things, not write about them. But think about your day. How much time of the time you spend working is dedicated to writing? 30%? 50%? 80%? You are taking notes, writing emails, sending text messages, maybe creating social media content, crafting reports. Turns out, you grew up to be a writer.

The difference between our idea of “being a writer” and what you do every day is that your writing is functional. You aren’t putting “write” on your To Do list each day; you are doing tasks, exchanging information, creating new information, asking questions, but writing is the way you are getting those things done—it’s the method, the conduit, the channel, the tool.

“A writer,” as in one of those professionals who writes for a living, is writing in order to entertain or engage readers. Most newspaper articles don’t ask you to do anything at the end, and the information they present rarely has a direct and immediate impact on your daily life. The newspaper says things like “377 cases of CoVID in Larimer County today.” This is useful, interesting, and relevant information, but it doesn’t add anything to my To Do list or change the basic structure of your day. On the other hand, you get a text message from your assistant, “Bob Smith [new lead] called and wants to meet with you.” This message is statement, just like the newspaper sentence, but it probably does have an immediate impact on your day. You are likely to add “call Bob Smith” to your To Do list.

Now, if the newspaper article is incorrect about the number of cases and prints a correction tomorrow, “The number of cases was 376 not 377,” your day is still not affected. The initial information didn’t affect your daily life and this correction doesn’t really change anything. But what if your assistant meant “Bob Smyth [new lead] called”? That might be an entirely different person. And by the time you find out the error, you’ve already emailed Bob Smith, who hasn’t responded because he deleted your message, and Bob Smyth things you’ve blown him off since you haven’t responded and goes to find someone else to work with.

Professional writers care a lot about correctness because errors change meaning. But the effect an error has on their audience is typically minimal. You are a functional writer. Errors in your messages might prevent those messages from accomplishing their goal.

So, what can you do to prevent those errors? Practice planning your messages before you start. And wait at least 15 minutes between writing your message and revising it. These two things are absolutely essential to your ability to ensure that the messages you send are clear, complete, and correct. Our new online course, Better Business Writing, will go into these strategies and more, in depth and with support from our expert coaches.

You are a writer. And the more you learn about how to write effectively, the more likely the people you write to will trust you, think you are credible, and see you as essential to the job that you do.