Written Communication

Communicating by way of written language, symbols, and numbers encompass written communications. It can also be a Social media post, an email, a formal contract, etc., all of which aims to provide information as clearly and concisely as possible.

• Poor writing skills may lead to ambiguity, embarrassment, and legal problems. Hence it is critical to write structured and proper sentences to ensure the written message is clear and conveys the message.

How to effectively use written communication:

• Strive to be concise and straightforward.
• Don’t rely on tone, be very clear about what you are trying to communicate.
• Take time to review your written communication.

In today’s world, a lot of written communication happens via emails. As such, it is very important to be able to write effective emails.

How to write effective emails:

• Make good use of the subject line: the average person receives more than 100 emails per day and as such, it is very easy for them to overlook your email and not respond to it.
  • Try to summarise the content of the emails with a compelling subject line.
  • Use your subject line to indicate action required and if possible, the time required to perform the action.
    • For example: [Feedback Required] [Project X Pitchdeck]

• Keep messages clear and brief: the body of your email should be direct and informative and should contain all the relevant information.
  • You should ideally also not bombard a person with a lot of information in one email but send multiple emails for multiple topics.
  • If, however, you need to put a lot of information about multiple topics in one email, consider breaking them down in small, organised units of information.
    • For example:
      • ‘Action required on Project X’
        • Project X Pitchdeck has been sent to you for review and we would like your feedback in the next 3 days.
      • 'Action required on Project Y'
        • Project Y is currently in closing and we would like your availability in setting a meeting to iron out the final details for our closing report.

• Be polite, check the tone of your email: your emails reflect how professional you are, and as such it is good to be formal when using emails at work.
  • Avoid informal language, slangs and jargon on emails and close your emails with ‘Regards’, ‘Yours Sincerely’ etc depending on the situation and relationship.
  • As emails are not face to face communication, it leaves a lot of scope of misunderstandings if the tone of the email is not checked before hitting send. Your choice of words, length of sentence, use of punctuation can be misinterpreted due to a lack of visual cues. This can be avoided by re-reading the email and seeing how it may ‘feel’ to the receiver.
  • Replace/rewrite certain sentences if you feel you will be misunderstood.

For example, the following email may come off as aggressive and may feel hostile to the receiver:

Dear Michael,

Please send your graphics for the report by today or I can not meet Jack’s deadline for the submission.

William

The following may be a better way to express the urgency of the situation, which helps the receiver connect to the need for them to work quickly on your requirement:

Dear Michael,

As per our conversation yesterday, I am aware you are working hard on the graphics for the report. As such, would you be able to send me your version of the report by the end of the day so we do not miss Jack’s deadline for submission?

Thank you so much for your understanding,

Regards,

William

Watch this video to learn how to write more effective emails in today’s world.

1. You can also read these articles to learn how to do this better: Writing Effective Emails
2. How to write better emails at work by Harvard Business Review