I want to help out by offering you three relevant and useful
ideas related to grammar and communication that will help you achieve your resolutions and goals.
Many of you who know me or who have emailed me with topic suggestions or blog
feedback know that I believe that good grammar and communication intersects most things that we
do in life. If we are to do better in whatever professional or personal pursuit
that lies in front of us, we’ve got to communicate properly.
During this month, I’ve spent some time thinking about what
I could tell you that could propel you forward in 2016. As a result, I’ve set
aside the hundreds of useful grammar ideas and rules, and I offer you three top
grammar goals that I believe could make a huge impact on you this year. If you
focus on just these three things and do no more in the area of grammar, I
promise you that you will feel better about yourself, others will appreciate and
recognize your efforts, and you will see great things come your way. Is better
grammar the easy answer to a great 2016? No. Instead, better grammar will be a
key factor in helping you do whatever it is you want to do.
I ask you to keep these three points in the back of your
mind each and every day as you communicate. Whether you’re writing or speaking,
they will help. Here we go: clear, concise, and correct.
1. Clear. Think
about what you want to communicate and break the message down into its key
points. These ideas, without any doubt in your mind, are what you want others
to know from you. Make it simple by thinking about what you want to write or
say before you communicate it. A
clear communication has the following characteristics: understandable, intelligible,
obvious, unambiguous, coherent, and straightforward.
2. Concise. Shorter
is usually better when communicating. The longer you prolong whatever it is
you’re trying to write or say, eyes start to gloss over, the audience to whom
you’re delivering your valuable information will lose attention, and your
message could be ignored. Since these outcomes need to be avoided at all costs,
think about the following:
- Don’t send long emails. Limit it to a small number of
sentences or paragraphs; make it just long enough so you say what you have to
say clearly and concisely. In life today, some things can only be communicated
by email, especially if you don’t want to have an in-person meeting or if there
are many people who need to hear directly from you. Regardless, please be
considerate and think about your audience by keeping your emails as short as
possible.
- The same principles apply to other written forms of
communication. If you need to send a letter or memo, nothing is carved in the
grammar stone that says they must be verbose. Are there exceptions? Yes. Sometimes
you have to go into excruciating details when communicating with others, and
doing so adds length. Even so, my point is always be as concise as possible,
and don’t shy away from editing and revising your work.
- When talking to others on the phone or in person, don’t
tarry but do get to the point. Your time is important, and so is theirs. Get
through phase one of the conversation, which is where you have the pleasantries
and small talk, and move along to phase two, which is where you want to
effectively communicate. Then wrap it up—in a nice and friendly way, of course.
3. Correct. Being
correct involves two things: 1) writing or speaking in proper and accepted
ways, and 2) ensuring that what you are communicating is accurate, right, and
true.
Proper and Accepted Ways:
What are some ways to learn how to write and speak properly?
This is an easy question to answer, though it involves committed work on
anyone’s part to get it all right. The easy answer is to get targeted training
to develop your speaking and writing skills. There are hundreds of training
resources, and I’m sure you can easily evaluate them. Look for seminars, in-house
training, local colleges, free courses on the web, and non-free courses on the
web.
Another suggestion to improve your writing and speaking is
to just do it; that is, learn by practicing and doing. This is what most people
do, and it is by far, in my opinion, the best alternative because most people
learn well by doing, and they learn best by doing things well. So, if you
believe you need improvement in speaking or writing, just step out there and
speak to others and write. Find a buddy to give you some feedback on how you’re
doing, and observe others around you who speak and write well—and model their
behavior.
If someone is speaking well, what is it that they’re doing
that makes them sound so fantastic? If someone is speaking poorly, take note of
what challenges they are having and make it a point to avoid these pitfalls
yourself. The same principles are involved in
writing. Most people who write well, read the writings of others and learn from
those experiences. If you read well-written reports, documents, news stories,
and magazines, you will have excellent ways to pick up the nuances involved in
writing. Ask your buddies for their evaluations of your conversational and
speaking abilities, and ask them to critique your writing style. These are easy
and superb ways of getting the precise and immediate feedback that will be
useful to you.
Accurate, Right, and True:
I will make two important points and distinctions as my last
thoughts for today.
First, without exception, any communication that you offer
to others needs to be free from grammatical errors. I just suggested how to
improve your writing and speaking skills. This helps, and as a reminder, it is
crucial that you proofread your written communications before you send them.
Instead of repeating myself, I refer you to my blog post below from November 8,
2015, entitled “Easy Fixes for Daily Writing.” There, you will find great information
on what I am conveying to you.
Finally, it is vital that the content of your communication
is accurate, right, and true. Here, I am not talking about grammar or
punctuation, but instead am referring to what
you’re saying. Is the substance and content of your communication factual,
truthful, exact, verifiable, reliable, and certain? If not, you’ll not only
have a communication issue at hand, prepare yourself for a question of your
credibility. The last thing you want to say, for example, is that something
happened, when it did not; a number is correct, when it is not; that Mr. X did
this, when he did not do it or might not have done it; or that a problem was
caused by Y, when it’s possible other things might have caused or contributed
to the problem. The only exceptions that I can think of are if you’re giving your
opinion or if you're speculating. If so, be sure and clearly state that you are guessing or speculating or that it’s your reasoned and
well-thought-out opinion—given the facts and information as you see them. You get my point; everything you
write or say should be accurate, right, and true. The way to make this happen
is to re-read what you’re communicating, verify everything, and have your
buddies give their honest critiques of what you’re writing.
Thank you for your time today, and I appreciate you reading
my post. I hope that I have shared some helpful information with you. As
always, thank you for your emails and topic suggestions, and please bookmark my
blog. I will catch up with you in February.
https://www.twitter.com/randallponder @randallponder
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