We all enter college with unique skills and academic strengths. It is probably no surprise that only a minority of students come to university with superior writing skills.
Lacking solid writing skills in college is certainly an issue. There are essays and papers to write all of the time. And the expectation of professors is that writing will be scholarly and formal. Students who come in without these skills are at a big disadvantage. They are competing with that minority who have them. And their scores will suffer.
Competing in college is one thing. Competing in your career after college is even more important. Of course, you can always turn to an academic writing service, nowadays they don’t only do essays, but they might be unable to provide you with another presentation you forgot about within an hour. If you don’t master writing skills while still in university, then your career may suffer too.
Here’s why you must improve your writing skills while still in college, so that you are well prepared for the writing you must do on the job.
Writing Demands In any Career
No matter what your career field, you will face the need to write. It will be a different form of writing than you did in university, but the rules of good grammar and composition will still be required.
Think of all of the writing that you may have to do in your career work, and you will understand just how important good writing skills are.
Email is now one of the primary ways that business professionals communicate with one another. It replaces telephone communication.
When emails are poorly written, lack of organizational structure and clarity mean that your recipient will be confused. This is a waste of your time and his.
What your university training should do is give you time to refine your writing, so that you can work on organizational structure and key grammar and composition skills.
While email is certainly not formal and scholarly, it is critical that you have the ability to craft important information in an organized way, clearly state your message to any recipient.
- Company Requirements for Writing Skills
As early as 2004, the U.S. College Board National Commission on Writing began to state the fact that 2/3 of career positions in major companies across the world require writing. And, it also reported that about $3.1 billion is spent on training employees in writing skills.
If you come into a position with solid writing skills, you are more valuable to your employer than other employees. And your chances for moving up faster are greater, according to the Commission report.
- The Types of Writing That Will Be Required
When you enter a career field, there is a myriad of task responsibilities that involve writing, many of which you will be charged. Among these are the following:
- Emails to colleagues, superiors, and customers, on a regular basis
- Reports that summarize activities and achievements within your department
- Presentations within your organization and to outside individuals and groups
- Memos that must provide clear instructions, policies, procedures, etc. to internal members of the organization.
Not only must these be succinct and clear, but they must also be precisely written, so that irrelevancies are eliminated.
- The Need for Impeccable Grammar and Composition
This is one of the most important improvements that students can make while they are still in university. When they produce essays and papers for their instructors or professors, the expectation is that they will submit pieces of writing that reflect excellent grammar and composition. If they don’t, their scores will suffer.
When students take the time to really work on their grammar and composition skills, they will develop the writing habits that will stick with them for a lifetime.
One of the things that the College Board study reported is that employers want clarity, accuracy, spelling, and good grammar in writing skills of their employees. These things should then be focused on improving writing skills while still in college.
- Formal vs. Informal
One thing that also came out of the College Board study is that employers prefer less stiff and less formal writing styles. And this is where writing skills in the university may not be in sync with those required by companies and organizations.
It would be a good idea for students who know they will be looking for career positions in non-academic environments to prepare themselves for less formal writing.
Taking a few workshops on business writing; practicing writing blog posts and other online articles, should help to develop these styles.
But make no mistake about it. No matter how informal a writing style should become, there is never room for grammar or compositional mistakes. Perfect skills are critical, and errors will often not be tolerated for long.
Conclusion
University experiences are a time for students to become experts in their fields of study. Their studies prepare them to take career positions and to begin a career path that will take them far. But the importance of mastering writing skills cannot be under-stated. No matter what career field you have chosen, you will have to write, and you will have to write well.
Use your university time to develop and refine your writing skills. You will be a much more valuable employee right from the beginning.
Author Bio: Daniela Vicker is a freelance writer and an editor for the website, TopWritersReview. In her work, she is focused on helping students and employees to become better writers. On the side, she is a musician, as a keyboardist in a rhythm and blues band, and an avid environmental activist, especially related to saving our coral reefs.
