2.1 Written Communication - General Skills
Basics
The ideas in this module are intended to help you develop strong professional writing skills. Professional writing takes practice to develop; to improve you should intentionally incorporate strategies into your work. Throughout this module you will expand good practices for:
- General professional writing skills
- Formal vs informal communication
- Tone of voice when writing
You may want to revisit this module periodically to incorporate additional strategies over time.
Terms to Know
You should know the following terms:
- Positive language
- Negative language
- Standard English language
- Acronym
- Professional writing
- Tone of Voice
- Slang or regional phrases
- Formal language
- Informal language
Information
Whether you are writing an email, documenting your work on a Help Ticket, or sending a text, you should use professional writing techniques for work communications. Professional writing means that you use a friendly but formal writing style that incorporates accurate grammar and mechanics of language (things like capitalization, punctuation, and spelling).
If this is an area where you are still growing your skills, here are a few strategies you can intentionally use to improve your professional writing:
- Make your language appropriate for the audience.
- Write using Standard English language and use proper grammar and spelling; use grammar and spell checkers if needed.
- Avoid using non-technical acronyms, such as LOL, BRB, TTFN; only use common technical acronyms when appropriate.
- Use multiple short, succinct sentences instead of compound sentences.
- Limit the use of exclamation points.
- Reread everything your write; even better, read what you write out loud.
- Maintain a positive tone while providing accurate information.
- Use a dictionary or thesaurus to ensure you are using the correct word.
- Avoid humor and slang (including technical jargon).
Formal vs Informal Writing
Finding the right tone for an email can be tricky. How do you determine how formal an email should be? The first thing to remember is that PROFESSIONAL is not the same as formal; a professional email can use either formal language or informal language.
Two key factors to determining how formal your language should be with someone you are communicating with are:
- length of time you have known the person
- your relationship/interactions with the person outside of work
Generally speaking, the less you know and interact with the person the more formal your language will be. While everything is a continuum, here are some comparisons between formal and informal communication:
| Formal | Informal |
|---|---|
| More official in tone | More casual in tone |
| Straight & to the point | More conversational |
| Uses a passive voice | Uses an active voice |
| Has a formal salutation | Has a casual or no salutation |
| No emotional language | May use emotional language |
| No interjections or exclamations | May include interjections and exclamations |
| No use of contractions | May use contractions |
| Avoid cliche statements | May include cliches |
| Avoid abbreviated phrases | May use common acronyms |
Tone of Written Communication
Another important factor in crafting professional written communication is tone. When you have a face-to-face conversation you rely heavily on facial expression, body posture, gestures, and physical tone of voice to interpret the words they are saying and their intent. Without these visual and aural cues, we often fail to interpret the correct intent of the words.
Care must be given to the “tone” of your writing, especially with email. Email is akin to managing a relationship remotely so tone can become even more important.
Avoid:
- All caps (this indicates shouting)
- Using negative words or phrases (negative language)
- Excessive punctuation marks
Be sure to:
- Be personal but professional
- Use positive language
- Start with a greeting and end with a farewell
It is always good to read your written communications before you send it to check for tone. If you are still not sure, you can even ask a colleague to read it.
If you yourself are unsure of a person's intent with something they have written due to a tone that could be interpreted multiple ways you should go talk to the person face-to-face. That leaves no room for doubt.
Task/Self-Assessment
Complete the following task or self-assessment:
Use the following checklist to self-assess your skills.
- I can explain how professional writing is different from other types of writing I might do.
- I can incorporate strategies to improve my written communications when working on the Help Desk.
- I can leverage technology to improve my professional writing (such as ensuring that I use standard English with accurate grammar and spelling).
- I can write clear, concise emails that the user can understand.
- I understand the difference between formal and informal emails.
- I understand tone of voice and know how to apply it to professional communication.
- I can incorporate tips to write professional emails.
- I understand how to use texting appropriately.
- I can choose the best type of communication to use in any given situation.
Additionally, answer the question: How will I know I’m using strong professional writing strategies?