As you probably know, Business Training is part of a group of distance learning colleges that includes The Writers Bureau. Earlier today I was looking at a writing assignment that one of our overseas students had prepared. It was a lovely short story, full of tension, where two people are drawn to one another but know that things can’t go further because one of them is married and wishes to remain faithful to his wife. It positively sizzled with the chemistry between the two characters.
But, and this is a big but, it was let down by the fact that the writer made lots of grammatical mistakes. They had obviously been so engrossed in crafting and writing the story that they didn’t bother to think how they were expressing their ideas, or check their work when they had finished to spot and correct the mistakes. This meant that instead of being able to recommend that they send the story off to a publisher, I had to suggest that they sit down and start doing some serious revision work on it.
This applies not only to creative writing but also to your business writing. It doesn’t matter how good the contents of your emails, reports, memos and letters are, if they are peppered with mistakes, people will think that you are unprofessional and will probably be less inclined to do what require. What do you think when you get an email with wrong spelling, incomplete sentences, poor grammar and colloquial phrases that aren’t really clear? The writer immediately goes down in your estimation, doesn’t he?
So, whether you are writing for pleasure or for work it’s important to:
- Think carefully as you are writing to make sure that what is clear to you is also clear to your reader.
- Before sending anything off, put it aside and let it ‘rest’. Then go back to it with clear eyes and check it through (more than once, if necessary). Check that the subject of each sentence agrees with the verb and that you have used consistent tense throughout. If you start in the past tense, stay there, don’t suddenly slip into the present. Then check your spelling, punctuation and capitalisation. Finally, a problem for many non-native speakers of English, ensure that you have included ‘determiners’ (a, an, the) where they are needed.
If you follow these tips, your writing really will improve – I promise! And, if you need more help and advice on how to improve your grammar, spelling and punctuation then you might want to consider enrolling on our Business English with Spoken English Diploma Course.
Author: Diana Nadin
