The Importance of Writing Skills in the Workplace

Communicating quickly and effectively is the cornerstone of any profession. No matter how unrelated writing may seem to a particular field, it's important to regard your writing as an essential component of your skillset.

Getting Hired

The importance of good writing skills begins at the hiring level. Cover letters are an integral part of many hiring processes, and candidates who display excellent writing skills often stand out in the application pool. The importance of showcasing good writing during the hiring stage extends to email conversations with prospective employers as well as effective resume writing.

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Maintaining Professionalism

Although many modern workplaces have become more casual regarding communication, maintaining professionalism across email correspondences or other written exchanges remains important. Responses riddled with typos or confusing and improper grammar may cause co-workers or superiors to question your professionalism or attention to detail.

Communicating Efficiently

If you've ever experienced a long email chain wherein respondents ask multiple questions to clarify the original email, you'll understand the importance of efficient communication. Having sharply honed writing skills can help you clearly and quickly communicate updates, events, projects, or other important topics to co-workers without requiring additional time for clarification or questions.

Increasing Credibility

Although writing skills are important for internal communications, they are just as important externally, if not more so. As anyone studying public relations knows, online publications, publicly circulated updates and website copy are some of the most important channels that clients use to reference your company. Published content that is hard to understand, poorly written, or contains grammatical or spelling errors can decrease potential clients' opinions of your company from the outset.

Improving Writing Skills

It's clear that writing skills are important throughout your career, but how do you improve lackluster skills? Taking college or post-college courses provides tools to improve your writing skills, and you may even consider taking a designated writing course. It is also helpful to pay careful attention to the writing you find effective and high-quality, and to learn what traits it has that you can learn from. Of course, practice makes perfect, so writing daily—even if it's simply journaling or sending emails—can also help.

Seeking higher education is a great way to improve your writing while also acquiring new skills for an advanced career. If you're considering returning to school, learn more by viewing our programs online, or complete this form to discover the opportunities provided by the Tulane School of Professional Advancement.