Writing is a core discipline that we have given utmost importance to. Ever since the time we were young students, we have been taught how to think, how to speak, and of course, how to write. The simple practice of putting pen to paper and jotting down ideas to form coherent sentences, paragraphs, and pages, was one of the key activities that sparked our development as a society. 

Nowadays, writing skills continue to be a keystone to many different environments, holding various systems of our society together. In departments such as education, business, government, and mass communication, the basics of writing are greatly utilized. 

Whether it be essays, resumes, theses, newspapers, or even government laws, writing can be found everywhere. It’s no wonder that good writing skills are so valued today.

Why Should I Hone My Writing Skills?

It is important for everyone to achieve a good level of literacy in order to be proficient in their specific fields. The boost in cognitive ability could be used almost everywhere. Having knowledge about the basics of writing can go a long way no matter what career you want to pursue. 

With our milieus advancing every single day, writing is becoming more and more of a necessity. The prospect of improving the way you write bears benefits too good to simply ignore, and the range of its utility is quite vast. 

Here are the reasons why you should consider developing your writing skills:

1. Develop critical thinking skills

There’s a reason why the basics of writing are heavily emphasized in education. It is because learning how to write effectively is a great way of teaching yourself how to think critically. Most people believe that great writers are also great thinkers. In the words of Pulitzer Prize-winner David McCullough, he stated “Writing is thinking. To write well is to think clearly. That’s why it’s so hard.”

In order to become a good writer, one should develop skills in observation, analysis, reflection, and presentation of ideas, all of which help boost your cognitive thinking abilities. The addition of editing and proofreading will also teach you how to be meticulous and well-organized. Inevitably, writing will help improve and streamline the thinking process.

With all of these skills compounded and sharpened, the individual is granted more efficient ways of analyzing problems and presenting solutions. It is critical thinking working at its finest.

2. Timeliness and idea preservation

Ever since the beginning of our civilization, writing has been used to document all sorts of ideas. In fact, the oldest accounts of writing date back to almost 5,500 years ago. 

The average person could easily forget an impulsive idea, whether or not it was valuable, to begin with. With writing, there is an outlet for individuals to project these ideas using methods that are tangible and long-lasting. Various religious texts, scrolls, and bills throughout our history were products of these ideas.

On a more sentimental note, an individual can make use of these mediums to create documents that are personal, preserving deeper accounts about themselves, their personalities and livelihoods. Writing memoirs, autobiographies, and diaries are examples of these endeavors.

3. Mass communication

Essentially, developing your writing skills would grant you the access to communicate to larger audiences with ease. This fact is what solidifies writing as a skill of power, allowing you to tap into the minds of numerous individuals with a mere page of written ideas. 

Writing has the ability to influence people in many different ways, oftentimes allowing them to see the world from a brand new perspective. It can do so through informing, persuading, narrating, and reviewing to name a few. Writing has the power of connecting to people and leaving an impact on their lives.

Books and newspapers were important contributors to the spread of information, but with the continuously growing era of the internet, sharing forms of writing has reached its paramount usage. Right now, anyone has the potential to learn or know anything with a single press of a button. Likewise, anyone from anywhere can be a writer, and so can you! 

4. Confidence in professionalism

As discussed before, the proficiency and basics of writing go a long way, especially in professional scenarios. The bigger the grasp one has on writing, the more likely they are to produce more credible and complex documents to convince employers. 

Job applications

To even get accepted in most workplaces, one must know how to write job applications. Employers would take a look at these documents and use them as the basis for judgment. This is why learning how to write resumes, CVs, and cover letters is a key step for aspiring workers. 

Writing at a workplace

In a business setting, it is advantageous to develop a conscientious approach in writing to guarantee good quality in your outputs. Investing the time for editing and proofreading your works is often beneficial. Writing reports, business cases, and executive summaries are quite common in the work environment.

5. Expressing yourself

One last reason for developing your writing skills is for your own personal expression. At its core, writing is a tool that helps us evoke, materialize, and present all of our ideas for others to see. This provides us with the opportunity to share complex concepts that people normally wouldn’t think about on their own. With the help of imagination and execution, writing can serve as a medium for creating true works of art.

Writing full-length books is common for most creative individuals. Inspiring poetry and imaginative stories can be shared with the masses using different ways of publishing.

Methods for Developing your Writing Skills

After all that’s said, developing your writing skills is indeed beneficial in the long run, though it may be challenging. Oftentimes, people don’t know how to start sharpening their writing capabilities, but here are a few tips that could help achieve this:

Study the basics of writing

Of course, a writer can’t be proficient with their craft without learning the basics of writing. When developing your writing skills, be sure to pay close attention to your drafts. Do they follow the rules of your chosen language effectively? Is there some way you can phrase an idea better?

Be mindful of the language principles such as grammar, spelling, punctuation, and sentence structure. An effective way to find errors is to run your sample output through any document-based application that checks for mistakes. Doing so is also part of the editing and proofreading process.

Make use of good vocabulary

A great writer always knows how to pick the right words. In any given situation, there is always an effective way to articulate an idea with the most accurate set of vocabulary. Oftentimes, this would mean finding ways to increase your vocabulary, thereby expanding your options for choice of words. One good way to do this is through research or reading books.

Be creative

The French writer Voltaire once said: “Writing is the painting of the voice.” As it is, there are plenty of possibilities that arise with a blank word document, and an array of ways you can choose to express yourself. Using your imagination, you can paint color on any topic, while also adding a little bit of your own personality to your output.

Make use of editing and proofreading

Lastly, to ensure that every single principle is properly applied, the writer must make use of editing and proofreading. These two practices are often done one after the other in the document preparation process. 

Editing comes first, with the focus on changing the core features of the output. This would mostly mean making changes for clarity, readability, and good pacing. It may include word reduction if required, and sometimes the changing of entire sentences. 

Proofreading, on the other hand, focuses on polishing the entire document and addressing its surface-level issues, which include grammar and spelling. It is often done at the final point to make sure everything is good to go. 

These processes are beneficial for polishing your writing style and clarifying your ideas. 

On a Final Note

As our society continues to advance, the use of writing will also grow, spreading information through multiple mediums. We hope that the information we shared convinced you to take part in this, because the development of your writing skills could eventually be part of the development of our world.