Quality of Writing in UK Businesses – Summary
Who is this for?
If you are concerned with staff development in an organisation where the quality of writing matters, this series of articles is of interest to you.
It is difficult for reviewers to argue objectively for an absolute ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ assessment when preparing a document for publication, especially if they are not trained editors. We aim to help organisations to grapple with this problem.
Our Approach
We have divided our comments into three categories: writers, the organisation, and managers. This is a useful way to segregate symptoms according to who observes them and it also helps when looking for improvements that will work across the whole organisation.
Summary of Recommendations
These are the key recommendations from our survey.
- Business leaders need to provide clear guidelines on the kind of writing they expect and to give priority to quality by allowing time in the writing process for briefing, planning and checking.
- Managers need to provide support and motivation in the form of constructive feedback on writing style.
- Writers need to take pride in their work, ask questions and take responsibility for personal learning.
- In order for all of the above to take place, objective quality standards need to be agreed.
Index to Associated Blogs
The rest of the report is contained these blogs.
Quality of Writing in UK Businesses – Writers
Quality of Writing in UK Businesses – The Organisation
Quality of Writing in UK Businesses – Managers
Quality of Writing in UK Businesses – So What Can We Do?