Comments on: The Importance of Writing Well

By: Jason

Jason — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 05:19:03 +0000

I just started blogging for a friend for his website and I am trying to remember all those rules for writing. Some great resources.

By: Jesse

Jesse — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 17:33:40 +0000

Nice article, for some reason our nations literacy rate is dropping at an alarming rate, now online I see some of the worst writing. It’s refreshing when you see a well written piece, thanks for the post. (or as the kids say thx 4ur pst.

By: John

John — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 09:04:45 +0000

That should be "The Importance of Writing GOOD"!

Ha ha. Just kidding. I have an idea for another related, but different article. The importance of learning type. I've seen so many developers and html guys who still hunt-and-peck using only their pointy fingers. And guess what...they get less done in the same amount of time as the ones who can type properly. No surprises there. Anyhow...it's just a thought.

By: Vim

Vim — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 08:43:29 +0000

100% agree with the post, however everyone has different writing styles.

By: Roger

Roger — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 07:53:49 +0000

Nice write-up and good content keep writing.

By: Jenny

Jenny — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 09:15:11 +0000

It is so refreshing to have people understand the importance of writing on the web. People wouldn’t stand to read a book that had poor grammar and spelling mistakes, however people think it acceptable to have it online. The biggest resource for information is the internet, yet there are so many sites that the writing skills are poor. This may be down to the fast lives we all lead now, but people still - I think- like to see time and thought has gone into something that has been written by someone whose taken the care to spell check their work.

By: David Alan Preston-Earley

David Alan Preston-Earley — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 09:36:10 +0000

Who determines what is good writing and is not. In a world where every thing seems to be based (rightly so) on what is politically correct and regarded as fair comments to a particular article or issue. Most of us prefer to communicate in a way that is clear and concise and in a way we have been brought up. Brought up in a mining community (by heck that’s blomming good matey)we were lucky to have any education I remember leaving school at 15 not being able to read or write, playing at catch up in (a literate) based world I often think how important it is to communicate in the right way and at the right time without offending other people. Respond!

By: isolde

isolde — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 04:17:41 +0000

If Barack Obama had poor writing and speaking skills, would he have won the presidency? While it’s true that the previous president was the worst in recent memory and his party (as well as McCain) were dragged down because of the past 8 years, I don’t think Obama would have done as well if he had not been as eloquent.

By: MikeP

MikeP — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 20:20:44 +0000

Oh, and I can't recommend William Zinsser, On Writing Well, enough.

By: MikeP

MikeP — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 20:18:41 +0000

I can't take issue with much of this, except this bit: ". . . when your long term success depends on communication with employees, audiences, partners, and customers, everybody, especially those in leadership positions . . ."

That's an unnecessary condition. When does your long term success not depend on these sorts of communication? You could say that it's more important for "customer facing" types, but picture this: customer facing type takes a question from a customer and doesn't know the answer. So he asks somebody in the back hall, who provides a typical techie answer - loaded with jargon and rambling sentences. The CF type re-interprets, and passes it on to the customer in clearly written prose that misses the point entirely. Now the customer's annoyed because her question isn't answered, or worse, it's answered incorrectly.

That's just one example, but I could think of others - I've run into a bunch, and I'm sure you the reader has as well.