Your language is your most valuable portfolio item

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An occurring trend I’ve noticed around Forrst (as well as other websites) is a serious lack of communicative skill. It’s deeper than avoiding words like ‘lol’ — people seem to have little understanding of structured sentences and appropriate punctuation. I’m far from being an English teacher, but I’d say that your communicative skill is one of your most valuable portfolio items.

When it comes to communication in the real world, it’s a big deal for clients. Many of my clients have needed help with their website after it’s launch — whether this be a video, a one-to-one teaching session, or most favorable, a document outlining the basics of the site. If you lack the proper communication skills or understanding of the words you’re writing, then this document will serve no purpose and could confuse the reader even more. Little things — like the misplacement of apostrophes — will put off users, particularly potential employers.

Take the time to learn about the different uses for punctuation — correct placement of apostrophes, commas, semicolons, and dashes. If you’re using WordPress, you can install the WP-Typography plugin. It automatically replaces straight quotes etc with smart quotes and other fancy typographic things. Keeping up a blog has been a tremendous help toward the development of my communication skills — you find yourself reading over the things you had written and thinking “That doesn’t make any sense”.

Your clients and employers will be impressed if you have good communicative skills — some of my clients have been surprised by my ability to write and communicate. It helps especially for those clients that regard content as a part of the package (which happens more often than not, I can tell you). There is a lot of information on this topic available at A List Apart, and it goes hand in hand with Content Strategy. I would recommend getting a copy of Erin Kissane’s book “The Elements of Content Strategy”. While it has little to say in regard to actual language, it gives a myriad of tips on internal and external communication and content delivery.

  • http://www.lukejones.me/ Luke Jones

    LOL

  • http://michaelwright.me Michael Wright

    On Forrst many people would put their lacklustre English down to the fact that it’s not their first language. I can understand that this might be the case, and at times I can sympathise with them and take their posts with a pinch of salt.

    However, when their structure, language, and general grammar is so far off that the whole content is beyond understandable, then I completely agree.

    I received a rather interesting email today — interesting not because it was full of things that tickled interest, but rather interesting because I couldn’t fully understand what it was about.

    Don’t even get me started on the inability for many users or people to to capitalise either the letter ‘I’ when referring to oneself, or even at the start of a sentence, or otherwise.

    I guess one contributing factor to this decline, would be the advent of social media, or instant messaging that many people seem to ‘spk lik dis’ on.

  • http://www.dreamdealer.nl Johan van Tongeren

    Good read!

    Language is something i’m strugling with too. I know what I want to say, but I find it hard to find the right words ánd write proper English, since i’m not a native English speaker. I know my English sucks, but I can’t really help it… I’ve been thinking about taking lessons/courses but they are all very expensive…

    • http://daneden.me Dan Eden

      @Johan van Tongeren: you’re being very modest — your language is very good, the only thing giving you away is your name!

      I’d say that it’s completely understandable if English isn’t your first language — my point here was more about becoming fluent in your native language.

    • http://michaelwright.me Michael Wright

      @Johan van Tongeren: I’d look, instead of undertaking courses, perhaps reading other people’s postings & comments.

      Also, if you ever need, shout at me to proof read some of your stuff — always happy to help out (:

  • http://www.dreamdealer.nl Johan van Tongeren

    * giggles like a little girl *

    That comment is most likely to be a fluke, but I get a lot of comments on my articles (offline comments mostly) stating my English is more Dunglish (dutch/english).

    I think i’m really need to take that English course at the Tilburg University if i’m going to take things serious.

    Ontopic: that hipster/msn/twitter/sms language is a problem here in Holland too. I see lots of adults using very bad language in online media and when I ask why they don’t write proper sentences, they tend to reply with an easy “What does it matter? People get what I wan’t to say. It’s just a tweet, not a job application letter…”. They don’t take the medium serious.

  • Asko Nõmm

    I agree. Language is the most widely accepted form of communication and if someone is lacking that then it’s obviously not someone I’d choose to hire. After all, why choose an international path if you can’t communicate on an international level, right? Oh and by the way, I’m not a native English speaker either, but I do try.

  • http://www.hendeca.com Neal Wright

    I couldn’t agree with you more! I’ve also spent some time on Forrst and I’ve really noticed this everywhere. I feel that perhaps one of the most important skills is knowing what tone to use. It’s common that whether or not someone could use more eloquent language, they choose not to because they don’t understand the context well enough to know what’s appropriate. On Forrst they try to make it clear that writing should maintain a professional tone, but many users treat it like a laid-back social hangout instead of a group of professionals giving useful critiques. Great post!