Write for your life

If your job requires any kind of writing, think of it as a key to your future instead of an unimportant and unsatisfying part of the job.

I discovered early in my career that faceless bureaucrats never signed their name to the correspondence they drafted. We would prepare the draft for signature by a higher up. As close as we came to being known as the author were the initials we placed on the carbon copy before it went upward.

But that was enough. I figured that if I did a good enough job on the original draft I might someday get noticed for having half a brain, even a tad of creativity. By golly, it worked. Everyone once in a while I’d get a note from one of my superiors saying “nice job.” Eventually I got promoted.

You may not be drafting correspondence, but whatever you write on the job, even work orders or trip reports, is going to be noticed—for good or ill. You may feel it has little to do with your real work. But it has everything to do with it.

When you’re writing on the job, put real thought into it. Load it with important information that others need to have. In other words, show that you’ve put careful thought on it. And if someone else is signing what you write, give it extra care. After all, it will make her/him look good signing it.

You may not like writing; it’s hard work for anyone. The only way to learn how to write, as many experts have pointed out, is to write. Practice, practice, practice. Write letters to friends and loved ones. Keep a journal of your experience. There is a writer in you.

A great resource for improving your writing is http://lifejournal.com. Also for increasing your word power look up every new word you encounter and use a thesaurus to find words closer to what you are trying to say.

Sooner or later you’ll be a star!