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Writing has never been my forte, but I have been asked to begin writing proposals for work in order to move into upper management. After a few failed attempts to produce this type of material, I fear that I will not be asked again - and I will have to stay in my current position instead of being promoted. Can you give me some tips on how to improve my writing skills?
Some people have a natural feel for constructing sentences, spelling things correctly, and using proper punctuation. But for those who don't know a semi-colon from a comma, help is available.
You might want to start by having some standard reference books on hand to help you with spelling, word choice, sentence construction, and grammar. Get a copy of a dictionary, a thesaurus, the Chicago Manual of Style and Strunk and White's Elements of Style.
Will your employer pay for you to take work-related classes? There are numerous continuing education classes that can help you develop your writing skills. The New School , NYU, and Columbia all have continuing education programs where you can take writing courses. Request a course bulletin for the fall, and you can enroll in a writing class that suits your needs, such as business writing, fundamentals of writing, and so on.
There are also resources online that can help you hone your proposal-writing skills. We’re not sure exactly what type of proposal you have in mind, but the Foundation Center has an online proposal writing short course that may be helpful to you. Their website has lots of resources, and they also offer classes at their New York City location near Union Square.
Last but not least, perhaps there is a colleague or supervisor at work who can review your writing, edit it, and give you constructive criticism and tips on improving your writing skills. Maybe he or she can mentor you in this area and give you some more strategies to improve your professional writing.
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If you need immediate help, my advice would be to go to a place (e.g., a writing center at a university if they'll let you) where you can get feedback on an actual proposal that you've written. That way you don't have a to wait a whole semester for your writing to improve (though a class really isn't a bad idea), and you can see what the really major things are that you should focus on trying to improve. I think it's often easiest to learn how to write better by dealing with a sample of your writing and getting feedback directly on that and then doing a rewrite to address the specific comments you've gotten.
I would definitely take Gothamist's advice to enlist the help of a colleague or supervisor. Don't be afraid to show people in your company your writing because they're the ones most suited to know whether you're getting the right points across and whether your writing was effective within the realm of your particular company. Assuming your writing improves, they won't hold your first "failed" attempts against you. They'll probably even be flattered that you've asked for their feedback.
"On Writing Well" by William Zinsser helped me greatly when I had to write my first major report at my job, which favors a straightforward, economical style of writing in it's published work. The book is an excellent guide to nonfiction writing, particularly for businesses.
"Elements of Style" is also a must-have, as stated above.
Good luck!
Very bizarre -I took this kicking class at the JCC in Manhattan through New York Writers Workshop. I came in thinking I was a really nice writer and walked out actually learning how to structure something; the hard part. Classes there are really good. Very surprised.
a random suggestion that I've found helpful-- note that every time you compose an email or a message on an online message board, you're practicing writing clear sentences, communicating ideas, grammar, punctuation, all that. so one "fun" way to practice writing every day is to get involved in an online forum about something you're into... bonus points if it's political or something else that can evoke passion: there's never a more perfect time to try to really get your ideas across when you're trying to argue with some lunkhead and convice them that Bush has GOT to go...