Writing considerations
Writing has always been thought of as a way of expressing and communicating ideas in a written (i.e., traditional or digital) manner. But it seemed like that may not necessarily be the case. Writing can also be a way to bring value to your readers and audience. It’s a way of making your work known to the greater community. A way of influencing the ideas of others and challenging the status quo.
In order for us to do that, thinking before writing is imperative. The objective of your writing would influence the way you organise and craft the content. Most importantly, the flow and content of your writing need to be coherent and clear to the readers. Hence, there is a higher chance of content being messy and unreadable if the writer wrote it without thinking through it properly.
Given the rise in digital media, writings in different forms are readily available online. However, good writings which readers find worthwhile to spend their time on remain scarce. Most of these writings were a product of a limited marketing/advertisement budget; paying an entry-level staff a small amount to write about their product such that people would buy it. Most of them may not be professional writers. Some might not even have proper training in writing. They’d probably write based on how they are taught in school. In long forms, explanatory texts, with reasonings, and personal takes on the matter of discussion with little to no thoughts about the platform of distribution, the targeted audience, ways to bring the message across more effectively, the potential use of anecdotes or analogies, and more.
It’s only when we realise that the way writing was taught in school is usually not the way we should write in reality (especially when we want our readers’ attention) that we can seek ways to improve the way we write. The way to write a board meeting minutes can be drastically different from the way to write a Medium article. Would people read a 17-page board meeting minutes on Medium? The platform is one of the key considerations when selecting your style of writing.
When my work involved more writing in the past, it’s easy to think about issues like this more deeply and consider ways to improve my writing. After a couple of job transitions, the amount that I wrote decreased dramatically. But it’s starting to increase again… Thinking starts, and so does the existence of this article.
