Whether it is for our work or as a hobby or to improve our subject knowledge, every one of us writes a lot. So we require effective writing skills. These skills won’t come overnight, and these require us to work for many years.
Effective writing requires a good command over the language in which we write and also on the topic. The following questions may creep into some of our minds. Do we really need to spend time on these? Can’t we excel in our profession with whatever the skills we have got from academics? The answer for such questions is simple. We need not have to become professional writers. Keeping the following things in mind and working on these will help us in writing better and up to the level demanded by our job or profession. Good writing will do the following.
· It creates a sound feeling
· It creates a brand for ours self
· It gives an idea
· It gives the reader a benefit
· It produces a desired response.
Before we try to become a better writer, we need to develop the following qualities.
· Voracious Reading
· Rich Vocabulary
· Good command over the language.
All these are interdependent on one another. If we are voracious readers, then only we can improve our vocabulary and also command over the language. Further the more we read the better we can write. While reading try to observe the style of writing of different writers and try to make some clues from their writing and implement those clues at the time of our writing. If we can do this in a constant manner then sooner than later we will find that we are writing far better than later. Speaking is different from writing. Certain words one can use while speaking may not be used in writing. It’s important to be aware of these.
Apart from working on them the following tips are to be followed for effective writing.
1. Empty our mind and relax our body before starts writing: – A better thinking makes a better writing. All we need to do is to empty our mind and take a long breath and then you can start writing. Because a fresh mind can think a millions of possibilities, solutions and imaginations to make our writing better.
2. Make a thorough & conceptual understanding of the topic:- It is always important to acquire complete and conceptual understanding of the topic before we actually start writing and try to acquire as much clarity as possible on how to present the same.
3. Try to keep it unique: – It is always important to bring something unique to the table that readers will enjoy. We can try writing a bit more conversationally – Readers are people just like us.
4. Simplicity is better: – It is equally important to ensure that our writing is easy to understand. There are many people who cannot understand difficult words. Simple writing makes readers to understand easily.
5. Focus on refinement: Perfection rarely comes in first draft. There is always room for improvement. Many a times great writing is a rough copy revised and edited.
6. Never Forget to Proofread: “To err is human”. Even professional writers also make mistakes. However, spending minutes to proofread the writing piece is enough to make that flawless. Never forget to do that.
7. Feedback: It is always good to seek feedback from others from whatever the work we do. Same will apply in writing also. We know what we intend to say but we may not be always correct on judging what others are going to interpret from that. This will also enable us to know the areas which are to be improved further.
These are just a few tips out of many which we can work out to improve our writing skills. As said earlier these skills can’t be acquired overnight but the journey can’t be completed unless we make an effort to catch the bus.
CA Manindar Kakarla
CAclubindia
