5 Tips for Being a Great Writer at Work
Some quick tips to help you (and me) be a great writer at work
Hello again š I hope everyone is having a great week so far šŖ
As I was writing in my work journal this morning I thought a great topic for this weekās newsletter would be: 5 tips to help you (and me) be a great writer at work.
1) Write everyday
Our team at Shareup has a writing culture ā the primary way we communicate day-to-day is through written text. And Iām not just talking about chat. We all keep a daily work journal.
Every morning we start a new journal entry. For example, today my journal starts with:
Today I am writing up our weekly newsletter šŖ
[x] Write draft of newsletter
[x] Get feedback on the draft
[_] Send newsletter
I also use my Today space in new.space for iOS to keep a private, daily note for myself to capture ideas or thoughts throughout the day that maybe arenāt ready to share with everyone yet.
Our daily work journals are in a shared place where the entire team can read through them at their own convenience.
Which brings me to my next tipā¦
2) Share what you write
By taking the time to write up our goals for the day, our process for solving a problem, our research and links when learning about something new, and our plans for tomorrow in a shared place, the entire team can keep up-to-date without interrupting the work. I donāt have to interrupt Anthony to see what his plans are for tomorrow.
We learn so much more from reading through the thought process and research than from only seeing the final solution.
Start writing everyday, in a shared place so others can read it, andā¦
3) Listen to feedback
Ask if anyone found anything confusing or unclear, and then donāt take it personally. Writing at work is meant to be read by others, and we should be excited to accept advice from others to make it easier for them to understand.
Three tips Iāve learned from peopleās feedback to keep my writing at work more readable:
Use fewer sports analogies. Even something as simple as āit will be a home runā can be confusing at times.
Keep sentences short. Keep paragraphs short. Less is more.
Be direct and get to the point quickly. Itās tempting to give things have a flowery narrative, but I have to remember my work journal isnāt a novel š
Along with learning from people, we canā¦
4) Learn from tools
Spellcheck and grammar check tools can help us improve our writing with very little effort. However, Iāve learned to not accept a spellcheck or grammar check suggestion until Iāve understood the mistake the tool is trying to correct. I think itās important to learn to make fewer mistakes by interrogating the suggestions of these tools and remembering them for next time.
This can go beyond spellcheck: Grammerly is a tool that can offer you even more suggestions, and there are many other tools like it. These tools are not always correct, so donāt blindly apply their suggestions. Instead, try to learn the spelling or grammar rule behind the suggesting to understand how to avoid needing the correction in the future.
And of course many people are using the new Large Language Models (LLMs) in services like ChatGPT to help them write, and we can pay attention and learn from their suggestions as well.
I asked Googleās Gemini how I could improve this newsletter and I collected its suggestions into a space here. Check them out. Which suggestions do you think it is correct about? What has your experience been with these new LLMs and have they helped you with your writing?
And finallyā¦
5) Read
A good reader is a better writer.
Read what your work colleagues write, read what others in your industry write, and read things that arenāt related to your work at all.
We share a #random space as a team and I find a lot of great stuff to read there from my colleagues. Create a #random space in the iOS app, share it out to your team, and give it a try today. Itās great to check in and find cool links, videos, and other content throughout the week.
I put some links to some of the most recent links in the space for this newsletter.
What are your tips for being a better writer at work? How much of a writing culture to you have at your job? How are you using new.space to journal daily, collect things to read, and/or share those with your colleagues?
Let me know in the comments.
And thanks for reading š
Happy writing and sharing,
Nathan