He knows the importance of able writing

I was talking to someone from a huge national company the other day and what he had to say warmed my heart, soothed my mind and showed that some smart people in power know that effective communication comes through knowing how to write well.

His company is bringing on an internal communicator not only to help get across the company's message to those in and out of the company, but to offer employees of all rank -- including executives -- a chance at improving their writing skills.

I've been saying for a long time -- to anyone who will listen -- that we have a workforce in sad shape when it comes to communication. From poor grammar skills to muddled sentence structure, too many people are harming themselves and their companies by not accomplishing good basic writing. (And, don't get me started on bloggers. Many are fantastic communicators. Too many are wasting your time and theirs through incomprehensible wordage and phraseology. No matter what message they want to get across, they aren't doing it.)

Too many of my college students are coming to me unprepared to write a simple, clear cut, thoroughly understandable sentence, let alone an entire story. I can only imagine, and shiver at the prospect, of what lack of writing skills nonjournalism students are bringing into the class and beyond to the workforce.

From the trucker hauling a load to the entrepreneur staring a new business, everyone has something worthy to say and needs to have his or her writing stand up to the message. So, when my new acquaintence from the huge national company said he wants to give everyone in the company a chance to improve their writing skills, I jumped for joy.

Now there's a true benefit, one that will last a person the rest of his or her life. Little beats getting your message across -- be it memo, e-mail, white paper, report, policy statement, letter, press release, refrigerator note or blog.

Giving his employees the chance to learn new writing skills, or polish their old ones, shows a caring vision.

What are you doing for your employees?

Cheers from,
WMW

It Makes An A - - Out of You and Me

Too many of the bloggers of the world either think no one is reading their blog or everyone is. If you're journaling for yourself, okay, but if you want to share you thoughts, you need to be clear.

Besides the grammar, spelling and sentence structure mistakes that confuse readers, too many bloggers assume the reader knows what they are talking about. Not so.

When many of us pull up a blog we're lost. There isn't any background or context to give meaning to what's newly written.

Bloggers need to find a few words to explain why the reader should be reading this post, what's new about this information, how does it relate to what's been said before and how/why it matters.

Before hitting the send button, you, the blogger, need to ask yourself if what you've written can stand alone. Would someone who's finding your blog for the first time understand your latest entry? (Hint: if a reader needs to read all entries to understand your latest, you'll likely lose them.)

Yours,
WMW