Old boss told me my writing was too wordy and it stuck with me for years

Honestly, back when I was 22 at my first office job in Chicago, my manager handed back a report I spent two days on. She circled this one sentence and wrote 'get to the point' in red pen. It stung at first but she was right, I was using all these big words trying to sound smart. After that I started cutting every sentence down by half before sending anything. Now when I write emails or proposals I read them out loud first and if it sounds fancy I delete it. It helped me land a promotion last year because my boss said my updates were actually clear and useful. Anyone else ever get feedback that changed how you write or communicate at work?

2 comments

2 Comments

uma8968d ago

Did you hear about that study where they found most people only read about 20% of what's on a screen? It makes me think about all those emails I used to write with five paragraphs that nobody probably even scrolled past the first one. I started using bullet points for everything now and putting the main point right at the top. It feels weird at first like you're being rude but people actually respond to my messages way faster than before.

kellyj238d ago

Yeah I read somewhere that people skim everything now anyway so shorter is better. My old boss told me the same thing and it forced me to stop writing like I was trying to impress someone. Now if I can say it in 10 words instead of 30 I do it and people actually read my stuff now. It's wild how much better feedback I get when I just talk normal instead of using big fancy words nobody cares about.