How can we overcome common writing problems in business-01422

Writer's Block

Writer's block is what we call the experience of getting stuck while writing. Although the results are the same, there are many sources of writer's block: lack of information, lack of a well defined purpose, poor knowledge of the audience, lack of confidence.

Lack of Information

If it is the result of poor research, then you will have to stop writing and do more information gathering. If you find yourself doing this often, you might correctly guess that you have a problem in defining your communication purpose.

Lack of a Well-Defined Purpose

A poorly defined purpose of your communication will inevitably make writing more difficult, and may block it altogether. Sometimes you will experience this as a lackof information; often you will notice it as paragraphs, sections, or entire reports or papers that shift topic in the middle. For any case of poorly defined purpose, the solution is the same. Develop a three-part purpose statement for the communication, and develop an outline of topics sentences based on the purpose statements.

Poorly Analyzed Audience

Audience analysis that is performed poorly or not at all can be the source of writer's block. At such times you find yourself staring at the video display screen wondering who is going to read your report and what on earth they want from it.

Lack of Confidence

A lack of confidence in your abilities as a writer is a common source of writer's block, and it is usually self-fulfilling. If you do not think you can communicate effectively, you will not be able to practice your systematic approaches of writing problems is the solution to this problem.

Organizational Problems

Organizational problems are discovered during the editing phase. Finding and fixing these problems is what makes editing important. If they are not fixed, readers experience organization problems as complete breakdowns in communication.

Punctuation Problems

Accurate punctuation does not ensure accurate communication, but accurate communication is tremendously enhanced by accurate punctuation. Take the following punctuation test, without first looking at the correct version which follows, to see how well you know punctuation. The test focuses on the most common punctuation problems in technical writing.