(By Jeff Dunn)
Whether you’re a teacher, student, parent, blogger, or anyone who needs to simply put their thoughts down on paper … you need to know how to write. You need to know how to express yourself. You know, and stuff.
As someone who gets hundreds of e-mails a day from people hoping to write for us, I can say without much hesitation that most people out there don’t know how to write. Simple as that. If their emails are any indication, they don’t grasp the key points of what it takes to be a good writer. To them and everyone else, I offer the following tips and a tongue-in-cheek list:
Tip 1: Proofread your writing. Make sure you don’t misspell anything. Especially if you’re writing to someone trying to show off how good a writer you are. You’re dead in the water before you hit that ‘send’ button.
Tip 2: Know your audience. If you’re writing to a student or a teacher, you’re going to write things a bit differently. Same goes for admins, businesspeople, and anyone else. You wouldn’t believe the number of informal e-mails I get from people I’ve never met before. It makes me feel like someone who has the memory of a gnat. While I concede that I do in fact have that type of memory, I at least can search my inbox to see if you’ve written to me before. When I can’t find anything – yet get an overly friendly email – then I know something is up.
The following tips are also worth noting. They’re simply, to the point, and worth adding to your brain.
