Writing is one of the most important skills you need to succeed in life. Whether in school or at work, the ability to write well can make a huge difference in your performance. Its benefits extend even to your well being and quality of your relationships.
You can write in many different forms such as journal or diary entries, stories, poetry, articles, academic papers, and business proposals. We are taught to master the technical aspects of writing in school but the typical teacher will not tell you that you are also being trained to think and communicate for success in life.
Here is a critical point: Much of the most significant things you would do for your education and career success will be through writing.
For example,
- Writing tests and examinations
- Applying for admission to higher institutions
- Applying for scholarships
- Writing your degree project or master’s and PhD theses
- Applying for jobs
- Communicating with colleagues, business associates, and other formal entities
What You Gain
1. Writing turns you into a more precise thinking being. Nothing forces you more to think than to hold pen to paper or open a blank page in Word or your blog and start to type. In fact, experts advise that you think on paper when you need to need crucial decisions. The act of putting your thoughts down on paper helps you to see the sense or weirdness of your ideas, thoughts or plans.
2. Have ideas? Writing helps you to give birth to the ideas in your head. Your notepad, online or offline, becomes the first iteration of your ideas, their first contact with the world. It transforms them from intangible thoughts into a piece of creation you can now manipulate, mould, display, and even sell as you desire.
3. Writing can help you become a better speaker or presenter, a better debater, a better student, a better professional. Some great public speakers actually write their speeches before presenting to an audience even if they do not read their speeches. Show me a world renowned speaker and you can be sure the person invests quality time to write.
4. And finally, writing helps you to heal, forgive, forget nagging hurts, and mistakes. It is therapy for the mind. It offers a similar result to what happens when you share your pain with a friend. It releases the pressure on your inside like the CO2 let loose when you open a bottle of Coke.
3 Ways to Develop Your Writing Skills
- Read. From books to blogs, comics to novels, read wide across different genre, fiction or nonfiction. Read a lot of the things you like
- Start a personal diary, journal or blog (yes, it could be a private blog)
- Write every day. Or as often as you can.
I don’t know about you but I often struggle with my writing. Part of the issue is because writing generally is not easy task especially when you do it for others to read. It could also be due to my current skill level and my insistence on being perfect. In my next post, I will tell you some things you can do to enjoy and get better at writing.
Photo by Eye for Ebony on Unsplash