The Ultimate Guide to Written Communication [Best Practices & Tips] 

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Date: September 12, 2023

Written communication is a crucial skill that can help you achieve your desired results faster than your competition. Communicating with your colleagues, business partners, stakeholders, and even subordinates is certainly a highly critical matter that demands the utmost attention and expertise. Individuals with excellent communication skills usually stand out from their competition. Therefore, it is essential for every individual who desires to excel in a professional field to make efforts to improve communication skills. 

Written communication is a vital part of communication in this modern age. Most jobs in recent times require you to communicate fluently in writing through emails, notes, text messages, and formal letters. This will also give you direction to complete the given tasks effectively.

This blog post will explain written communication in detail and provide different ways to help you improve written communication. So, keep reading this blog post till the end to get familiar with written communication and its significance. 

What is Written Communication? 

Written communication is a process of sharing information or ideas through written content, such as letters, emails, and text messages. There are several ways of written communication, including articles, books, letters, and social media posts. 

Significance of Written Communication 

Written communication has become essential in this digital world where people must communicate with their mates to manage daily personal and professional tasks. Written communication is also beneficial as it serves as a permanent record that can be used later, unlike oral communication, which often vanishes from minds after some time. Another significant difference between oral and written communication is that written communication is formal, while oral communication is primarily informal. 

The major examples of written communication are: 

• Emails
• Text messages
• Employee manuals
• Memos
• Blog posts
• Business letters
• Reports
• Proposals
• Contracts
• Job descriptions
• Bulletins
• Instant messages
• Postcards
• Advertisements
• Brochures

It becomes inevitable for businesses to focus on written communication to promote their business and share information to stay alive in the business world.  

How to Communicate Effectively with Written Communication? 

Effective written communication lets readers understand what information you want to convey. Therefore, you need to be more clear and flawless to get the desired results. Here are a few suggestions that will help you communicate effectively with written communication.  

1. Identify Your Goal 

The primary purpose of communication is to share your ideas or thoughts with others. Therefore, the first thing you need to focus on should be identifying the cause of communication. Next, explaining what your reader wants to know and performing clearly in your written message is advised.   

2. Choose the Right Tone 

The tone you choose to share your views or ideas is important in attracting your readers. Typically, the tone we use in written communication is formal. However, you can use an informal tone when communicating with an old colleague or a friend. Therefore, your selected tone mainly depends on your written communication’s purpose and audience.  

3. Be Simple and Clear  

Adding complicated terms, expressions, and jargon in your written communication can affect its significance. It is your responsibility to give your readers ease in learning what you want them to know, regardless of their familiarity with your business and industry.   

4. Be Consistent  

Adding irrelevant and unnecessary information is a big mistake many individuals make while communicating through written communication. Similarly, clarity of message is highly crucial in this matter. We suggest you keep your sentences and paragraphs short and precise, as complicated and ambiguous statements and sentences can affect the readability of targeted readers. Moreover, use words that add value to the reader and help you explain your information effectively.  

5. Use Active Voice

Using active voice in your written message enhances its effectiveness and makes it easier to understand its readers. This will also keep your readers’ attention and improve their engagement with your shared idea. Instead, using passive voice in your written communication can damage the clarity of information, ultimately disturbing your readers’ understanding.  

6. Proofread Your Writing 

No one can deny the necessity of effective and comprehensive text proofreading before posting or sharing it. Analyzing your writing will help you discover all the deficiencies in it and help you craft a masterpiece. With blunt proofreading, you can detect punctuation, spelling and grammatical mistakes and correct them in your written text effectively. 

7. Make It Easy to Read 

Whether you are writing emails, memos, letters, or webpages, you must add brief text with plenty of white spaces that offer aid to your targeted people to read it without facing any difficulty. Besides, break your content into small chunks to make it easy for readers to understand. This holds more importance when viewers read the written data on a screen, like web content and emails. It is also advised to add bullet points, headers, and short phrases to uplift the attraction of your written message.   

8. Be Professional

If you are writing for business purposes, then make sure your content looks professional. Always add relevant information, jokes, or views on sensitive topics that your reader may interpret differently than your intentions. Instead, follow a professional and formal tone throughout your written communications, making it easier for the readers to respect and trust your opinion. 

9. Practice Your Skills to Avoid Errors 

Written communication is a skill that can be learned after a few days. It’s an ongoing process that requires consistent efforts and struggles from you. Practicing your written skills is the key to polishing yourself. It is also important to understand that practice doesn’t mean doing similar tasks repeatedly. You should practice writing different communication types like emails, letters, press releases, professional reports, and blog posts.  

Creating all types of content will help you know your strengths and deficiencies that need to be improved to excel in the field. Besides, taking the help of colleagues or supervisors can help you get reviews about your performance. This approach will help you eliminate bugs in your writing, ultimately improving your written communication skills.  

10. Take Constructive Criticism Positively  

Many writers often get disappointed when they receive criticism about their writing. It is essential to understand that constructive feedback doesn’t mean you are not a good writer or cannot grow in this domain. Taking criticism too personally often deviates writers from the right path and leads them to shift to other fields. Therefore, the first thing you need to understand is that constructive criticism is meant to aid you and contribute to your learning and growth. It is advised to take feedback as a help and implement the instructions or comments you get to see if it can impact you. This will make your job easier and make it more enjoyable for you.  

The 5 Cs of Effective Written Communication 

Written communication is a broad term that has different components. The five major parts of effective written communication are shared below. Try to learn them exquisitely to get the expected output from written communication.  

• Clear:  The information you are explaining should be simple and clear. 
• Concise:  Your content is free of all unnecessary data and contains only important and relevant information.
• Coherent: The written message has a smooth flow of ideas that help readers understand what you desire to convey. 
• Compelling: Impressive content with a clear purpose. 
• Correct: Witten text should be free of any spelling and grammatical mistakes.  

Additional Two: 

• Compassionate: Analyze before posting your message how it will land.
• Curious: Strive to learn what people demand from you. 

Final Words: 

Written communication has become an essential skill that every professional needs to master in recent times. The information shared in this blog post will help you improve your written communication skills. Practice is the most vital part that will develop confidence and help you adopt a unique writing style. It is important to learn that written communication requires extensive time and effort, as it’s a skill that can be learned and mastered over time. Following the instructions above and writing daily will make writing a no-uphill task for you. We hope the suggestions in this blog will enable you to improve your written communication skills and make it more enjoyable.