The importance of writing skills

 Have you ever stammered in between a heated argument to find that perfect word to explain your point? Or have you ever searched for “best wishes for a friend's birthday” and ” how to offer condolences” on google because you didn't know the right words needed to write your own message without being embarrassed by the typos or inappropriate text?

 

Well, if yes then this blog post is for you. Writing has been an essential communication skill for ages. It's a medium centuries-old people have used and generations after us will keep using.

Back in the day, people use to communicate by writing letters or using telegraphs. They use to type with a typewriter and illustrate books using a simple pen and an inkpot. Whereas today, while the means have changed and new styles of writing have been introduced, writing still helps us to communicate, read and learn. 

Ancient books and literature help you to know about human history whereas reading nice fiction can help you escape your reality for a while until you regather your energies to survive in this world.

Almost everything around you involves writing. From writing essays for school, Debates at Universities, Political speeches in front of the parliament rostrums, job applications, Emails, writing articles/blog posts or just posting punchy captions underneath your flattering Insta photos, you need to have good writing skills.

Benefits of Writing

• Writing helps you to identify things. It also keeps you organized. For an instance, writing down your to-do list helps you maintain your focus throughout the day. 
• Jotting down new ideas on your notepad or notebook helps you to be more creative. 

• It’s also therapeutic if you journal your day to day thoughts and reflections from perhaps a religious or a self-help book. 
• It has several other benefits from personal to state levels. Through written pieces of text, you can travel back in time. Be enlightened by reading the history of the world.
•  By studying the work of great scholars, scientists, philosophers, poets and thinkers that have been preserved in the form of books, you can learn and become more knowledgable. 
• We can also learn about the different ways of living life by reading about the civilizations that existed before us. 

Why learn “How to write?”

In this age of social media, where everyone can publish or post their work, idea or opinion without any scrutiny, the importance of good writing skills has increased. 

Today's software can nearly detect every grammatical error but cannot assure a good writing piece. Good writing should not just be free of typographical errors but also effective. It should clearly be able to deliver the message to the targeted audience. 

The use of fancy vocabulary to impress the audience is the work of amateur writers. Poor punctuation can make your text sound unclear. Therefore, like many other skills that we acquire to live our lives independently, learning how to write is equally important.

Through writing, you can polish your communication skills too, which is essential to learn for maintaining good relationships either at work or at home.

Tips to Write Better

Read Avidly 

Good writers read a lot. Especially, if you are learning the skill for professional use, dedicate specific hours of your day to reading. This will enlarge your vocabulary and enhance your writing. You will understand the use of distinctive words for different circumstances. 

Purpose

Write with purpose. Ask yourself, why am I writing this? Is this to inform people about something? To provide the information using facts or to guide them through your personal experience. You may be writing to promote a certain product. Search the type of people you’re writing for. What are their concerns? and answer their queries accordingly.

Clear and Simple

In today's digital world, nobody has the time nor focus to read prolonged passages of writing. That being the case, try to write as clear and concise as possible. At times, unconsciously, we use terms belonging to a certain field in our writing that everybody cannot easily understand. Be mindful and write in plain and simple language. 

Redundancy

Redundancy means words of similar meaning appearing together in a writing. This is just going to contribute to elongating your sentences for no use. 

For example; free gifts. Well, we all know that gifts are for free. Or like ‘various different reasons’, different and various means the same. Avoid doing this to make your writing as concrete as possible.

Flair

Bring elegance to your writing. Write with flair. The correct flow of ideas is extremely important for your audience to keep themselves engaged. Don't leave loose ends here and there. Avoid ambiguity as much as possible. By following the mentioned steps you’ll be able to do better,

• Read about your topic from different resources.

• Jot down all ideas related to the topic.

• Highlight the ones you want to keep. Erase the rest of the text.

• Now, add text side by side to further elaborate your point.

• Bring order through logic.

• Don’t overload your writing with extra information. Just provide what is necessary. Cut down the clutter. 

• Read out loud to detect mistakes. When you are done writing, re-read after a while. You’ll be able to point out errors even better when you’ll read fresh.

• Lastly, edit with a sharp eye.

Evocativeness

Try out different styles of writing. Phrase and re-phrase. Play with words and have fun. Explore new meanings of different words and try to use them in your sentences. 

While watching a web series, turn on subtitles and take a screenshot of words that go over your head. Later, search for their meanings.

 When reading, highlight. Listening to audio? pause it! if you heard a word for the first time then add it to the list of new words you’re learning. Soon you’ll be diving into a pool of new vocabulary. 

Words that concisely interpret what you mean to describe will help you make an impact on your readers. 

CONCLUSION

Writing is an art, a life skill, a career and much more. If you learn the skill and how to use it. It is going to benefit you much more than you imagine. Public speaking is the most common fear in the world when you learn how to write well. Eventually, you will like to speak about your ideas and opinions. Your voice will make a difference. Start reading and then write with your point of view. And tell everyone, That's your idea to change the world!