Why Poor Writing Skills Could Be Holding You Back

The need to improve writing skills is not limited to those who work in the publishing, journalism, or communications industries. Almost every business and management job requires basic writing skills, whether you have to write a memo to employees or develop presentation slides to share with customers. If you don't have basic writing skills, your lack of skills could be holding you back in several ways. Poor writing skills can also cost your employer money, as communication problems can result in lost sales or costly errors.

Grammarly conducted a study of one hundred people to determine whether grammatical mistakes had an impact on their career paths. Company researchers studied the LinkedIn profiles of those in the group to see how many times each had been promoted in a ten-year period. According to Lauren Simonds of Time, the researchers found that those who had been promoted four or fewer times made 45 percent more errors in grammar than those who had been promoted between six and nine times. Simonds says you must improve writing skills to be effective as a manager or an employee who wants to rise up through the ranks.

If you do not take the time to improve writing skills before writing resumes and cover letters, poor writing skills could also be hurting your chances of landing a desirable position. In an article published on Nexxt, Jessica Holbrook says writing mechanics are one of the most-overlooked elements on executive resumes. She says that making too many mistakes on a resume could result in being passed over for the opportunity to interview for the job. Holbrook recommends checking your resume for repetitive and awkward phrasing, as well as grammatical, typographical, and spelling errors.

Bill Kozel, owner of the website Dr. GoodWrite, says that poor writing skills can cost employers dearly. He says that workers who need to improve writing skills might lack professionalism when writing emails or letters to customers and vendors. Some employees use inappropriate jargon or poor sentence structure when creating written communication pieces. Because most employees send emails without having those messages reviewed by company executives, employers may not even know workers are hurting their company's image. Executives should consider asking those employees to improve writing skills by participating in writing skills training. In-house writing skills training is an option, but only if you have at least one strong writer on your staff. Some employers prefer to hire outside training companies to deliver this type of training.

When you send an email or write a letter to a customer, you are representing your company and influencing the way the customer perceives you as a professional. If you are not a strong writer, consider taking courses to improve writing skills and make it easier for people to perceive you as a competent professional in your industry.

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