Page 269 - Effective Communication Soft Skills Strategies For Success by Nitin Bhatnagar, Mamta Bhatnagar

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Communication: Written English | 257

In your future career you will have to write certain academic and/or offi-
cial documents. In the remaining part of the chapter, we are going to explain
how to communicate effectively through writing.
Let us begin with the basics. Please remember that good, effective
communication through writing pre-supposes clear thinking. Only if you
have thought through an issue to its last details, you can write effectively.
Otherwise, your writing tends to lack coherence and appears very jumpy
and illogical.
Next, good written communication requires thorough research.
While speaking we can get away with a casual approach to the issue but
when we put it in black and white, the lack of sincere research shows very
glaringly.
Hence, often it is argued that for good writing, you require a six-point
programme:
i. Brain storming to arrive at a precise definition and a statement of the
theme to be dealt with. You can do this kind of exercise of mapping
out points on loose sheets of paper by yourself.
ii. Collecting data through research.
iii. Planning the actual document, its lay-out and final shape.
iv. Putting the pen to paper.
v. Editing your draft for grammar punctuation, spelling, and
consistency.
vi. Revising, it necessary.
Good communicators use every draft as a stage in the process of writing and
not as a final or finished product. It indeed helps to determine in advance the
length of your written communication because you can arrange and organize
and explain your points accordingly.
Basically, good written communication requires a unity of effect. We can
achieve it if our writing has a clear progression of the beginning—middle—
end variety.
It has been observed that an effective beginning, made attractive through
a quote/ an anecdote/ a process provides the ‘get set, go’ effect, a crisp start,
is precisely the need of good communication.
The middle part of the communication should contain all the solid data
that is coherently stated through cohesive devices such as ‘therefore’, so,’
‘
‘here’, ‘as a result’ (to indicate cause-effect relationship), ‘moreover’, ‘in addi-
tion’ (to show adding of supplementary details), ‘or’, ‘on the contrary’, ‘on the
other hand’, nevertheless’, (to show contrast) and ‘on the whole’, ‘in brief’
‘
(to sum up), etc.

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