Writing Skills

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Effective writing is more than correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar (although these help). Good writing above all requires clear, logical thinking.60 The act of writing can be a powerful thinking aid, because you have to think about what you really want to say and what the logic is behind your message.61

You want people to find your writing readable and interesting. Strive for clarity, organization, readability, and brevity.62 Brevity is much appreciated by readers who are overloaded with documents, including e-mail. Help e-mail recipients manage the flood of information by providing specific subject lines, putting your main point at the beginning of the message, limiting paragraphs to five lines or less, and avoiding sarcasm or caustic humor (which can be misinterpreted, especially when readers are scanning messages in a hurry).63

Your first draft rarely is as good as it could be. If you have time, revise it. Take the reader into consideration. Go through your entire message and delete all unnecessary words, sentences, and paragraphs. Use specific, concrete words rather than abstract phrases. Instead of saying, "A period of unfavorable weather set in," say, "It rained every day for a week."