Most professionals and entrepreneurs have not practised writing beyond high school, yet being able to communicate through writing effectively is an often overlooked but critical ability linked very closely to your success as a professional and the success of your business or project.
By this I mean that being able to convey a clear message in the written word that is well understood by your target audience or recipient can be the difference between selling millions of products or selling nothing at all.
Particularly in the age of e-mail and social media, it has become now more critical than ever to be able to write effectively. Without having to go back to school, how can you become a better writer? Well, here are three tools that will help you on your way to becoming a modern-day Hemingway of the e-mail, or if you do not have time, you can try out a cheap essay writing service or ghost writers.
Related: How to write for websites or blogs
Online courses
Udemy, Khan Academy, Harvard Online and many other online course marketplaces that contain a variety of writing courses from some of the world’s best writers are very useful tools. These courses cover everything from touch typing to content creation, structuring your writing, writing with speed and much more.
The majority of courses are quite low–priced or free and come in a very interactive format in most cases. The only downside of these writing tools is that you are going to have to invest some time as with any form of education!
Writing software
Why become a better writer when software can do the job for you? With the rise of machine learning and AI, software-based writing aids that can help you check your grammar, spelling and even structure your entire document are on the market and becoming better every day.
There are plenty of software-based writing aids out there with two of the best being Hemmingway and Grammarly (the latter being the better all-rounder, while Hemmingway is better at contextual editing). From personal experience these tools can save you a considerable amount of time and make you almost completely error proof. The downside is you are going to have to pay, but they are not crazily priced!
Dictation software
Many people have difficulty concentrating and typing at speed when writing, and this ends making some people slow when compiling a document, whether that is an essay or an e-mail. A few years ago, dictation software would not have made this list due to the number of errors it produced when turning your spoken words into text, but with recent technological improvements, it’s become another useful aid.
In essence, dictation software will use a microphone on your pc (usually your webcam) picking up your spoken words and translating them into text in your computer. There are even commands for editing, meaning you do not have to touch a keyboard anymore.
There are plenty of options out there including Dragon, Google Now and even Siri but if you want a very advanced solution, you will want something like Dragon and it’s going to cost you $100 to $500 (£70 – 350). It is an expensive investment, but if you struggle with typing, this could be an excellent solution for you.
A few final thoughts on how to become a better writer
Apart from hiring someone else to do your writing, alongside using these tools, you will still want to invest time in learning to become a better writer and it’s something I highly recommend if you wish to write better e-mails, legal documents or even novels. Investing in your skills is never a bad thing, especially when it comes to something you do on a daily basis and is so critical to your business.
Related: How to write a business plan