Authentic Writing - 10 Plain English Tips To Sound Like Yourself At Work

By Joanna Young

Authentic writing -- writing that sounds human, natural, real -- is a great way to create rapport with people at work. And yet so many of us have lost the art of sounding human, of writing in a way that sounds like ourselves. It’s been squashed out of us after years of learning how to write for teachers, professors, managers, peers; of writing to fit into a culture where other people talk in tongues, blinding us with long words and jargon -- and before long that’s what we find ourselves doing too.

Plain English at work

Plain English is the easiest way to break out of those bad habits and to start sounding like a human being again. Short sentences, everyday words and a conversational style can transform the way that you write -- and the impact you make.

Here are 10 simple ways that you can use plain English to sound like yourself at work:

1. Keep your sentences short. This will make your message clear, simple and easy to follow. Aim for an average of 18 words a sentence and break bigger sentences into two (or more).

2. Use everyday words. Think of the simplest, plainest, most ordinary way of describing the thing that you’re writing about.

3. Write the way that you speak. This doesn’t mean slang -- it does mean running together some of the words that we shorten when we’re talking. Things like “we’re” for “we are”, “I’ll” for “I will”, “you’re” for “you are” or “it’s” for “it is”.

4. Keep an eye on your grammar. Those of you who wobble over grammar might have been feeling weak on the last point -- because those little words are the ones that can trip us up. If this sounds like you -- take action to get it sorted. Ask someone to point out any recurring problem areas then look for a writing guide or some coaching help to fix them.

5. Keep it professional. Conversational style does have limits: a) slang doesn’t have go down well in most workplaces b) don’t be over-familiar or you’ll break rapport c) you do need a basic level of grammar to communicate clearly and inspire confidence

6. Use a thesaurus with care. They’re great if you’re looking for a word you already know and can’t quite remember -- dangerous if you start using lots of fancy words instead of plain ones.

7. Get ready to unlearn some rules. Things like not starting sentences with “but” or “because”. The rules come from a different age, don’t add anything today and can make you sound more like a text book than a human being.

8. Use your own words. Look for the the words that sound most like you, that make you feel motivated, confident, connected to what you're doing. Start to use those words in your written work and people will hear ‘you’ talking.

9. Say what you mean and mean what you say. No amount of writing advice will help if you’re not clear in your own mind what you’re trying to say, or if you’re being less than totally open with the people you’re writing to.

10. Read what you’ve written out loud. Does it make sense? Does it sound like you? Does it even sound like a human being? If not -- go back through these tips again!

Learning to write like yourself

Plain English is an easy way to strip your writing of jargon, of buzz words, of complex sentences that disguise meaning rather than add to it. It’s an easy way to start writing like yourself again. As a first step – why not look through this article and spot some of the ways that I’ve tried to use a plain English approach? Can you think of ways that you could do something similar where you work?

Marketing experts like Dawud Miracle coach us that “people want to do business with people not businesses”. There’s a whole lot of things that you can do to engage with people at the human level -- but learning how to write like yourself is a pretty good place to start.

Joanna Young is a writing coach who helps people to write with confidence - to realise the power of their own words. You can find out how to work with Joanna or read more of her writing tips at Confident Writing

If you're looking for more detailed suggestions on how to write using Plain English try Terence Denman's How Not to Write - a classic guide for the grammatically perplexed.

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