Master Advanced Writing Skills for Professional Success in Business

good morning friends i hope you are enjoying your lectures in soft skills and now we are going to start the writing section and it will be followed by several lectures on different sorts of writing which you might come across not only in your day to day lifes but also

in your professional lifes now let me ask you a question because i have often been listening to my students and my observation says that if out of these four skills you know all of you know well that we have lsrw i mean listening then speaking then reading and then writing

there are four skills we have been saying since beginning but you know if you ask yourself also and if i ask you which of these skills comes as the last order and many of these students often say that there is one thing that they are very much a words to or they

do not like is writing now most of the time they are interested to listen and if the opportunity comes they are also interested to speak but when they are assign the task of writing they actually feel it quite boring and burdensome isnt it i think

most of you will agree with me that they do not like writing but remember my dear friends if you are going to prove your metal in your professional life something that is of utmost importance is your writing now what is so why why you are

so much a words to so much disinterested ah towards writing but then there has been researches which say that if you want to see if you want to know a person you can know him not only by the way he speaks but also by the way he writes and writing today has become very important

whatever job you are in you will find that you have to write gone other school days when you have to write an essay you know you remember you had to write essays paragraphs small letters short reports isnt it now you are going to write something that

we call advance and when we talk about advanced writing advanced writing actually has to a great extent certain difficulties which may appear to be very challenging but it is very paying as well how is writing treated by great people by scholars in this connection i be

reminded of fansos becon who was an essayist and many of you might have come across some of his essays his essays are considered to be very efforical essays these considered to be the father of essays now in one of his essays he actually talks

about reading and writing and there he says reading make it a full man i mean if you want to be a person who considers himself to be a full man he has to read so reading make it a full man conference a ready man and writing an exact man meaning thereby if you want to

judge yourself or judge others you can judge yourself by your writing here i am not talking about your handwriting but i am talking about your writing style how do you write and in your organizational life in your professional life you will come

across different sorts of writing where everything goes with the help of writing you have to give instructions you have to provide some manuals you have to provide report you have to write letters if you are in a business you have to write letters for various purposes

and all this require a lot of qualities of writing but then this writing is an advanced writing sometimes you may have to write a proposal you know nowadays when we are in organizations we write proposals we write proposals for

project we write reports we write technical descriptions technical descriptions and we write letters for various purposes letters for various purposes and these letters actually are not the sort of letters or applications you wrote during your school or college this

they are actually different ah letters of various purposes and sometimes they may be credit letter sometimes they may be collection letter sometimes they may be complaint letters sometimes they may be adjustment letters we will see when we ah discuss a the types of

letter but here presently we are going to talk about what actually is writing and how can your writing be different and distincts first is let us try to understand what actually are this specific or the salient features of advanced writing first is conceptualizing

because once you are in an organization you actually whenever you write whatever you write my dear friend you must have an idea you must have a concept suppose you have ah got ah new concept and innovative concept so what do you do you first ah have a concept so what

you do you conceptualize everything isnt it and when you have a concept this because this this writing will be a sort of writing which will be based on the testimony of truth it has to have a sort of objectivity because this writing ah is a sort of scientific and

technical writing whether it is a sort of research paper or it is a sort of project report or it is a sort of project proposal or it is a sort of technical description or what so ever you will find first you will have to have a sort of conceptualization so

you will have to conceptualize ah like as we when we are talking about communication we first said that you as a sender must have an idea but suppose you have a concept you have developed a concept that concept has to be testified

on truth and that is why a lot of research is essential whenever you write a paper what do you do is you have a concept and then in order to support because you you have an idea or you have an innovative idea so in order to support it you have to do a lot of research

so it is actually your research ah that will support your line of thinking and when you have made the research because ah while going through several books going through several research papers finally whatever you have brought you are going to give it a shape and

while giving it a shape you actually have to draft draft so how will you draft you will draft based on the need of what you are writing if you are writing a report naturally you will follow a particular structure but if it is a letter it will have a different structure

if it is a technical proposal it will have a different structure if it is a description it will have a different ah structure so and as will be drafting that once you have drafted because you know when you draft it in the first ah moment in your first attempt it is

it is not so that it will be hundred percent correct and you remember ah because when you are finally draft it you must also have a time to revise it because when you revise you will find that there were certain things which ought to be added there were certain

things which ought to be deleted now ah when you are going to revise you will find the pieces of information which actually had to be inserted have somehow or the other been left so what you will do you will add sometimes you will find ah because all you

do when you have finally come out with some pieces of information ah now you will also check ah whether it actually conforms to ah the background here it is you know any writing that you do it has to ah keep into consideration your audience when i say audience here i actually

mean reader is it reader centric reader centric what do i mean by reader centric i mean the approach which is there the pattern which is there the selection of words which you have followed is it going to affect because anything that you are going to submit in the

form of writing finally will prompt some of your buses or some of your controlling heads to take a decision that is why you will have to check whether it is audience or reader centric now the question here is whenever you are

given a piece ah to write first you must understand why you are writing this many people even do not ask themselves this questions why why you are writing it for whom your writing my dear friend so when you know the answer to this why and to answer to this whom you will

finally find yourself as to how you should write it depending upon your aim every writing has got two or three aims the first is that you are writing to express your ideas you are writing to ah communicate your ideas sometimes ah this idea has actually to be ah conveyed

as a piece of information but its not true always imagine there is a new product in you are going to write about this product and may be you are one of the members of the team which has develop this a product so now time comes that you are going to launch

this product so when you are going to launch it you will find that you should take the views of others or you should have a sort of conformation and during that time you have to convince others of your ideas meaning thereby when you convince you actually require a sort

of reasoning so you will require a sort of reasoning sometimes you also may have to persuade people persuade your readers persuade ah your audience that is why depending upon the aims you will have finally to decide which way you are going to write

now why ah why do you think writing has it importance because in the beginning i have already told you ah that many people ah they often ah try to keep themselves away from this task of writing but once they understand its importance they will really ah feel interested

to write now writing reveals your personality whatever whatever you write when when a person is reading or writing no he may not see you but in a way he is trying to a see what a sort of personality you are and when when i say personality i do not mean only your

ideas your approach but also your presentation style your graph over words your graph whole language your graphs over the approach and even when you are not present there in your absence you are representing yourself for example all the books that you might have

read or are reading whenever you read that you are imagining the figure of the writer you are thinking about the writers knowledge your thinking about his personality and again the way you have written sometimes you ah might ah gets certain responses or reactions

by people ah and the say that it needs a sort to revision meaning there by he has also already passed the message that you are writing does not conform to the notions of correctness and the standards of language sometimes you in your flow of writing that is why time it

again we say when you right the first draught let the first draught not go let the first draught be revised and unless to revise you are not able to understand what are the shortcomings because you either might be arguing or trying to convince and while arguing or convincing

you might take a stand and and that is why when you are giving a statement or your putting on idea it will be seen how your idea is being supported by relevant facts how they are supported ah by examples and all and moreover writing is important because

it serves as a recurred now many people might be thinking ah that now a days in this age of digitalization in this age of computers writing has lost its relevance but see my dear friend it is simply a transformation what really and used to write with pen and

paper now it is ah through word processing but then it also have a database so it serves as recurred hence all of us when writing should see to it that our righting reflex our personality our reasoning ability our convincing attitude our persuasive faculty and all these are very

important now what actually is the difference between an informative and persuasive writing an informative writing simply in forms for example you have gone to take stock of ah certain ah things now what do you do you have actually a proforma

and you are simply thinking you know it is a stock verification required so what you you are not going to do anything you are simply putting whatever is there so informative information had simply to convey the information as it is but when you are trying to persuade the

persuasive writing has some other things to do it not only explains some people said this other said this ones scholar says like this and you are sometimes trying to contradict sometimes trying to counter some argument and you are giving your own ah say arguments

you also sometimes try to find out the fallacy in it so you are writing their becomes argumentative for example imagine you are going to write ah thesis you are going to write a dissertation now what you do there you are putting your own ideas but the tone is assertive of course

your reasoning but your reasoning by being assertive you are trying to convince others you you have a concept as i said earlier and you are trying to extend this concept further by giving examples and but then you have to be reader centred that is that is very important

now there are ways of writing i mean something can be written directly something can be written indirectly now which way should we go and it again will differ from one situation to other from one ah say circumstance to another for example when you are going to write effectively

you must understand the various features involved first is directness i mean you might have at times ah heard people saying whatever you want to say when i ah say say in writing i mean express so you have to express whenever you are saying something you have to express

and here maybe you are expressing it very directly isnt it so direct information directly so there should be a sort of directness because you are specifying something you have to be direct i mean ah ah again here the question of language comes into consideration not saying

something in a very roundabout circumlocutors language but then in a very plain clear candid manner so in this case the language used should be easy and how can language be easy no language is difficult my dear friend it is actually the person who is using he

actually makes a language difficult or easy so what can be an easy language again here will come ah how you are constructing your sentences how you are taking words generally it is found that a sentence if it has say six or eight words but sentence is simple

but then if somebody writes a sentence which has got twenty words thirty words it creates a lot of difficulty it poses a thread to the reader and that is why as i have been saying sometimes you are not able to as a right and even you are not able to connect between the

subject and the verb moreover the choice of words again the choice of words also should be familiar let the words be used which are familiar to your readers and how is this possible when you understand the background of your audience or reader

you will be in a position to use words which they can understand of course ah in a technical writing you may also come across ah the use of jargons and cleanses which we shall be discussing when you talk about the element of style ah or style of reports in all because

there will discuss in ah great detail but then ah a simple thing about word sees use words as simple as you can i mean if you use a word which you know its meaning but others do not know i think you have failed in the selection of the words

sometimes there are words which may have more meanings then one words are very tricky my dear friend so as a writer you have to be a trickier one so how you are going to use a word which may suit that ah entire if you entire topic use words as per your needs do

not make your writing very pompous or very wordy that becomes when you are using too many words but then sometimes in order because i have said that you have to be clear but then do not sacrifice meaning in order to be clear sometimes you will find that ah some

words or a simple sentence may speak less but then some sentences may not be able to explain what you want to explain in such cases you can use words but at the same time you have to see that this sentence length has to be salt not a longer sentence so you can

split sentences so use adequate words to achieve your purpose because you are main task is to make your readers understand then when you have done all these things it is always better ah that once you start writing it is better to make a sort of outline what

do you mean by outline as a person as a writer when you know what you are going to write about and you have the data make a tentative outline this outline will tell you how and and it will also help you ah how long there your entire writing is going to be here you

will put ah the main topics you will also put the some topics and then you will just like an experienced tailor you are going to cut your entire pieces of information and finally you are going to be reminded of this outline so in the outline you not only give

your main points but you will also give supporting points so and that is how you will ah plan an outline supporting points and ultimately towards the end you should see that when you reach a conclusion the conclusion of your writing you are to see whether you have been

able to do audio whether you have been able to write what you really wanted and that is possible only when you might have applied the unity the coherence and also the logic i mean is your writing a systematic structure is your writing based on a proper foundation

so that an and that how is that possible that is possible only when you put yourself in the position of your readers now that can be shown through so many examples for example let us look at these sentences now the first sentence ah you will find ah you will do me

a personal favour by submitting the report before five pm tomorrow now see all the words chosen here are very simple but then the way sentence begins it actually has become longer you will do me a personal favour i mean when you are working in organisations and write

in for organisation then you have to maintain a sort of formality and that is possible not only by making your sentences short but my also saying that no smack of personal favours are there so let us revise this sentence and then say

please submit the report to me no later than five pm tomorrow now see this sentence appears to be more fresh if compared to the earlier sentence and in in in a way you have actually ah started the sentence and you will find that the worm has come just in the beginning

so there is no question of any confusion now you also when you are writing you also have to be aware of the patterns so when i talk about patterns what i mean is since your document is technical and it has to stand true to the facts hence you have to understand the basic

pattern there are nine basic patterns and it is up to you to decide which pattern you are going to follow so let us throw some light on all of these ah though you are already aware of these patterns from the names that they are based after

direct plan so a direct plan is when you are saying things in a very direct manner and indirect plan is you know when there are things which appear unpleasant to you when you listened when you listen to a sentence which appears very unpleasant to you you may have to write

it in a very indirect manner for example you suppose when you are giving some good news let that good news be given in a very positive manner in a direct way but in organizations you will find ah that at times you may also have to convey some bad news and while conveying

the bad news it is always better to go through a a go through and indirect plan of writing indirect way of expression then comes order of importance and then chronology then problem solution causal spatial structural functional topical now when we talk about

organization and specially in terms of its direct plan you will find all sorts of routine activities they are written in a direct plan remember the tone they are is very neutral and it appears very pleasant because whenever you are going to give a people some good news

ah they had to follow the positive ah framework and that is possible when you frame your sentences on the pattern of s v a which we call subject verb and then agreement i mean there should be a proper agreement between the subject and the verb and the sentence has to be active

and when i say sentence has to be active keeping into consideration that this is reader centric I mean ah reader centric document is one that has ah you tone or ah you approach so when you are going to follow a direct plan you will find that ah your sentences are pleasant

and they follow and they confirm to ah you tone for example ah suppose you had complained ah against a project that was sent to you and was not received in a proper condition or you had sent an invitation you had sent a proposal now let us ah look at this sentence

where it is said the sentence begins with a very positive word congratulations your proposal now see your proposal for the workshop has evoked interest among students we advise you to send your lecture topics and journey plan now you had submitted ah

workshop proposal and and it has been accepted and that is why in a in an in a direct manner when the sentence has been written and the sentence appears to be very pleasant but sometimes thinks do not go the right way and things have to be conveyed in such a situation ah

the statement or the piece of information maybe unpleasant maybe negative so in such a case it is better to have a delayed opening and negative things have to be sent to the last or sometimes it may be situated in the middle i mean it should be guarded ah on both

ends but on the other hand towards the end there has to be a positive ending as in this ah ah statement you will find as this is actually the beginning of another letter thank you for your letter of application for the position

of computer programmer now see initially they have thanked this is actually the curtsy amount which will discuss in the next lecture you are right that we are one of the largest organizations now now comes the real thing [laughter] negative one isnt it because of the size and reputation

of our organization we review the education background and other characteristics of the candidates now see how in a very subtle in a very clever manner they have told you that they are not in a position to entertain your application

at the pleasant juncture so this is how when you write this is simply and instance from a letter but you may also have to write for some other purposes and they are also when you are going to say something which may ah not be welcome that has to be done in the

indirect plan then comes the order of importance that is also one pattern in such a situation ah you have to create a sort of order i mean something that is very important that will come in the first then the second most important reason and

the third important reason for example suppose i have to write a recommendation letter i have to recommend somebody know so in in such a case when i write the first sentence i may say i recommend mister x for the position of h r manager so in the first instance i

have said the most important reason but in the second one i have to give the second important reason and i have to support he has great communication skills he has the ability to know peoples needs he can take initiatives and manage people well

so you have justified ah your first statement so this is also a patterned which is ah called order of importance the next is chronology chronology as you all know it refers to time and when you are describing something according to the time sequence ah sometimes while writing

your resume or sometimes while describing in a incident or sometimes while answering to a so cause ah ah notice about an accident that took place you were to create that writing in a very sequential manner in the manner of time frame sometimes a in the resume as

you you can see ah specially it is most useful while writing resume so here it is mention year wise that in two thousand six he did that in two thousand seven he did that and again in two thousand eight or nine he did like that so this is the chronological

pattern then comes problem solution sometimes when you have a concept and through this concept you are going to talk about the problem so in such a situation what you are going to do in the first ah you are going to talk about the problem and the second you are offering

solution because you know when you create it on when you create your writing on this pattern the readers feel ah that you have been able to sustain their interest and it is also helpful in the readers understanding and the reader will also remember

for example when you are talking about a process again your mentioning a sequence but when you are talking about a problem again you are talking about the problem first and you are also offering your own solution next is causal where in the first instance either

you start from the cause and then you go to the effect or you can also follow the other way round i mean the vice versa for example let us look at this sentence pali pali is a language pali as a language seems to lose its significance by sixty percent so here

you have talked about an effect and then you are going to talk about the reason the reason is the decreasing number of users so on this pattern also you can create you can ah make your writing because all these patterns they are going to help the reader not only understand

but they are also going to help the reader remember what you said then come so special ah special actually means space where you are going to talk about something in a very geographical ah manner ah and and in this also depending upon your topic ah your your

style will be different but in such a way you will you will follow a geographical pattern which maybe sometimes on the base of structure the sales of a product seems increasing in the north i mean they are giving the direction and if he talks about the north in the other

he will talk about the south so the sales of a product seems increasing in the north and south while it seems to decrease decreasing ah in the east and the west and then there is another pattern which is called a structural ah this pattern again you know they may talk

about bonus they may talk about hike they may talk about compensation and all so this is also based on if it talks about come compensation on the one hand it will talk about the benefit it will talk about training for example when you are proposing a course ah there you will

provide the objective of the course and then finally you will also talk about how it will help how it will develop and then so there can be different ways you can ah describe there can be different ways you can create your messages and the last one is the topical

one where topics or subjects are broken into several sub topics or categories and then you are going to weave your information or your third patterns dear friends at times it has been seen that even good people having good knowledge they

are not able to frame their sentences in the proper writing style and that is why they are not considered better for example here is an ah here is an example of a sentence ah where you can see more and more geniuses are joining the world of teaching so it it

this is a first one and then they say the lucrative pay scales and other facilities have attracted their attention so either you follow ah in the problem solution model or you follow the pattern of cause effect or you follow structure all you need to do is

you need to think it from the point of view of your reader writing is an art as i have been saying and i will continue to say but remember it is also a sort of skill and this skill has to be developed and how can you develop that

skill let us take a ah quote from famous poet alexander popes ah work where he says you have to feel that when you write something you have a sort of easiness and for that his suggestion is true is in writing comes from art and not chance you cannot be a chanced

writer and you cannot think that someday you will start writing suddenly very beautiful know it is actually a sort of exercise it is actually a sort of art and it requires practice as those move easiest who have learnt to dance meaning thereby writing is a sort

of art and you have to put a lot of practice in order to make your writing not only impressive but also expressive please do remember that if we are in jobs we are in organisations it is actually the requirement of the time that we need to concentrate

on our writing we have been able to discuss what writing is and how we can try to be an effective writer but then we will see how different occasions demand different sorts of writing writing letters writing reports and how what are actually the various ah nitty

gritties of effective writing we shall discuss in the lecture to follow till then thank you very much have a nice day