Written Communication - A Lifelong Essay Research Resource

As children, many of us sat in class and listened as our English teachers droned on about the hazards of dangling modifiers, split infinitives, and run-on sentences. While the teacher continued her/his buzz, we pondered the question, "What on Earth do I need this information for?" However, it was not until our first job or application to college that we fully understood what it meant to be able to effectively employ written communication to our advantage. Written communication today is very important to our lives because it infiltrates so many aspects of our lives through education and business.

In school, great written communication skills are necessary to compete for spots at the top colleges. A potential student has to be able to express clearly to the admission's committee his/her goals. Being able to convey ideas in your admission's letter in a clear and effective manner makes the difference between a good student, an above average student, and an excellent student, and it also may be the deciding factor in whose application gets accepted and whose does not. While in college, you are competing against people who are just as smart or maybe even more intelligent than you are, but your written communication skills can place you a cut above the rest.

But college is not the only place that you will need great communication skills, many businesses require applicants to take exams attesting to their ability write clearly and with purpose. Businesses do not want to deal with people who do not have a great handle on the language because many of the deals that are made between companies are written in complicated language. They do not want someone whose grammar is so poor that the message is lost; instead, they prefer to employ people who are comfortable writing and they want people who can manipulate the language to benefit the company. Let's say you are a private business owner but your writing skills are less than average. This places you at a disadvantage when competing with other businesses for contracts from local and global governments. Government entities, both national and foreign, have to rely on the fact that what is stated in the contract is legible and understood by all parties involved. If you do not have strong written communication skills, this will be evident in your proposal for the contract and it will place you at a disadvantage. Work that is turned with serious grammatical errors and that lacks structure and organization will keep you from gaining the business that might otherwise be yours because those types of papers appear unprofessional.

Because so much of business is contracted over the Internet, the people with who you are working must be able to understand your ideas. They cannot ask you any questions directly so your ability to convey your ideas in a concise and organized manner is the only way to guarantee that they understand your meaning. Additionally, the Internet is an expansive tool with many opportunities to make money with little effort. Without strong written communication skills, you almost certainly shut yourself out of that market.

In the end, by closing your mind to learning how to communicate effectively, in a sense, you have closed the door on many opportunities that may come from the realms of school, business or the Internet. In college, the only way professors get to know you are through your essays. Knowing how to write well can translate into A's, and conversely, poor writing skills can translate into F's. In the realm of business and the Internet, clearly expressed written language translates into more money. If you really want to succeed in today's society, you have to develop strong written communication skills because that is how business is contracted... through legal and contractual documents.