Edition: October 5th, 2021
Curated by the Knowledge Team of ICS Career GPS
- Excerpts from article by Mihai Cristea, published on business-review.eu
Students often neglect writing at early stages. Improving writing skills is essential for business students because there is a lot of research work, strategic plans, presentations, and lengthy essay answers they need to work on for the course.
Here are some ways for business students to improve writing skills quickly:
1. Brush up on the basics
- Most of us have climbed the education ladder so high that we disregard the basic principles when writing.
- Take a good look at grammar rules.
- Get a few relevant books that you can skim through to remind yourself of such basics.
- It will help you write faster instead of having to go back and correct each error.
- The basics also include a few common spelling errors that multiple students go around making without even realising it.
- These errors can even change the meaning and context of your business assignment.
- It is essential to learn these basics to write professionally; after all, business is a professional course.
2. Make writing a daily exercise
If you want to improve your writing skills, it’s time to turn them into routine practice. If you do it once or twice a week, nothing will happen. You need to make it a habit as it will allow you to pace up and use all the grammar rules you learned better.
Here is how you do it:
- Fix a particular time of the day when you feel like you are productive;
- Set aside an hour daily to practice;
- Start slow and understand every business case you go through when you write about it;
- Take breaks as you write, don’t overwhelm yourself;
- Once you’re done, seek another person’s opinions;
- Proofread the paper yourself, too, so you can see your mistakes.
If you follow the routine every day, you will notice how your speed increases, and you will be able to follow the outlines for business writings far better. Remember, practice makes perfect. So practice till you’re perfect. It will take effort and time, but it will surely be worth it.
3. Read more
- Always remember that a good writer is a great reader.
- It would be best for you if you stick to business cases and critiques; however, they might be too complex for you to read at the start.
- Start with other work you find interesting, it will engage your mind, and you will notice your language and vocabulary improvement.
- You will, therefore, see your essay writing skills developing as much as you read.
- It will all be great for your writing and provide you more knowledge.
- Try to experiment with your reading material and make it more challenging.
- Pay proper attention to spelling, sentence structures, vocabulary, and the flow of the content. See the way everything is linked properly.
- The more you keep these things in mind, the more your writing will reach the next level.
- You might have to overstretch your limits, but it is advisable to read moderately instead of drowning yourself in books.
- Have some energy to practice written work too. Make it more fun than an annoying obligation daily.
4. Imitate writers you admire
- Once you start reading, you will develop a liking for specific authors.
- You can imitate their writing style or try to fuse it with your own. No, we are not asking you to plagiarise.
- See the techniques they use to make their work stand out and engage readers.
- Try to see if these techniques and devices go well with business assignments and if they help you improve your skills.
- Over time you will develop your style and won’t have to imitate another author at all. But these devices can be of great help to you in the long run.
- The goal is to develop your style by imitating established authors as much as possible.
- These are just pieces of inspiration for you to feel motivated when you work.
- If you ask how to practice writing skills, you must understand that imitation is a clear-cut step that you can’t ignore.
5. Develop a clear message
- Business assignments are all about clarity.
- When you work on ways to develop writing skills, don’t forget to try to convey the message, if you don’t, you won’t get anywhere with business assignments which can be tricky.
- A clear message via written work is one of the most important tips for business students because it is the requirement of their degree.
- The clearer your text is, the more appealing it is to readers.
- They appreciate correct and relevant information with clarity rather than confusing work.
Know that improving business writing isn’t an overnight process. It will take some time to pick up the pace; just be focused and consistent.
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(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in the article mentioned above are those of the author(s). They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of ICS Career GPS or its staff.)