The cloudier the reasoning the worse the writing and the clearer the reasoning the clearer the writing. Writing is often confused with the knowledge of a specific language. Knowledge of a language by itself is not good enough for productive writing as is definite to us when we consider Arabic as a case in point. Certainly, language is a prerequisite for productive writing but it is not a warrant of productive writing.
It Takes More Than Magic To Write
Rifle Scope
Magic has all the time and will all the time fascinate man. Magic fascinates because it holds the promise of easy solutions: magic potions, enchanted journeys, benevolent benefactors from other world who exist only to fulfill our dreams. In business, it is technological advances in data and communications technology that come closest to magic. While such advances speak eloquently of the greatness of the human mind and spirit to perform on one level, they also bring out the worst in those finding for 'magic' in doing what they have to do without effort.
I would like to share a limited anecdote taken from 2002 Gems of Educational Wit and Humor, Parker Publishing:
"What are we going to do?" said Baby Tiger to Mama Tiger in the jungle, "Here comes a hunter, and he has five rifles, three extra sighting scopes, and devices to allow him to see in the dark!"
"Hush!" answered Mama Tiger and she taught her cub how to sneak up from behind and pounce.
The hunter was never heard of again. All of which goes to prove that technology may be fine, but it will never be a substitute for a good basic education.
Technology had made the production of all kinds of work so easy that we often confuse the 'ease' as an end itself or a substitute for 'tough-minded' intellectual effort. Situations we have probably all experienced are the consequent of calculators on our quality to do reasoning calculations and the rarity of finding someone who can write a coherent, definite and meaningful piece of firm transportation and remembers to use the spell-checker on the Pc as well.
We cannot deny that technological advances come closer to 'magic' than any of the other achievements of contemporary civilization, but like all innovations they hold out a promise, but also a threat. I want to discuss the threat. Without exception, all the businesses I have had the privilege of collaborating with suffer from a shortage of able writers, particularly among those who are supposed to supply the service. If there is no 'form letter' to fall back on, or a 'paragraph library' from which to pick and choose, it takes an midpoint of three hours to produce one page and often much, much longer. The longer it takes the less cost-effective the whole firm becomes.
The two most coarse solutions I have seen attempted are: 1) fellowships keep written transportation to the lowest potential level and substitute oral exchanges instead; 2) They offer some form of training which frequently fails. I would like to inspect these two 'solutions' more fully with a view to identifying the root cause for the shortage of good writers.
Substituting oral for written transportation in small, medium or big businesses is asking for more issue than you need. Why? Because oral messages are actually forgotten, especially when habitancy are working under pressure or the message is improperly remembered. The first leads to a waste of time because things don't get done before some reminders are made. A supplementary complicating factor is that as the need for yet other reminder arises, so does the level of irritation of the someone requesting the action. The irritation comes over in the tone of voice and the respondent becomes defensive. This can lead to conflicts and misunderstandings which divert the concentration of the persons onto each other instead of on the work at hand.
Yes, indeed, we have seen a lot of requisite time wasted in this way. Add to it the need for arbitration from a third of fourth party in the society and you begin to get a fairly realistic photograph of how eight working hours can be fully wasted. Poor written transportation is no clarification either, because the time will be spent trying to figure out the meaning of the message or communicating over the telephone, to get clear answers to the ambiguous written message.
The other clarification attempted is 'training'. That often fails because the wrong habitancy get superior for training. There is no point training a secretary or supervisor to write properly if their employer has not upgraded his own skills and expects them to write the way he does regardless of the rightness or wrongness of his/her own writing. In such cases training only serves to generate supplementary frustration and misunderstanding.
Training works when it grows out of a proper comprehension of how the organizational culture of the firm works and who does what, how and why. That means there has to be dissimilar levels and approaches to training, if it is to be an productive solution. It also has to come to be part of the relevant permanent system within the organization, or it is money down the drain.
Why, then, is it so difficult to find individuals who can write accurately, clearly and recite the intended message to the receiver in the acceptable tone? I believe that the root cause is a underlying misunderstanding of what writing actually is. Writing is the expression of opinion in scripted form.
The cloudier the reasoning the worse the writing and the clearer the reasoning the clearer the writing. Writing is often confused with the knowledge of a specific language. Knowledge of a language by itself is not good enough for productive writing as is definite to us when we consider Arabic as a case in point. Certainly, language is a prerequisite for productive writing but it is not a warrant of productive writing.
The solution? If habitancy don't have the requisite language skills, you can't begin to train them to write effectively. You need to bring them up to the minimum acceptable standards first. Second, if they lack the requisite reasoning and analytical skills associated to logic and judgement, you must contain this component as an requisite ingredient in your improvement program. If this is not possible, drop the job.
Clear and productive writing is the goods of clear and productive thinking. Technology, no matter how advanced, can never replace development sound judgments. The judgement includes choosing the right paragraph for the situation from a set of 'stock paragraphs' in a paragraph library, if you can't produce them yourself.
Technology will assuredly help you get further, faster and with best results, but only if you can outsmart the Tiger. There is no substitute for developing intellectual efficiency; not yet anyway. Genetic engineering is well on its way though. Who knows what tomorrow will bring. True magic?
Clear and effective Writing Is the goods of Clear and effective Thinking: flourishing transportation
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