Effective Writing and Communication Tips

 By Lynn Horne, RN, OCN

Effective communication is paramount to landing and keeping a job. Along with technical skill, you will be expected to promote your organization and support its patrons, and this means a clear presentation of ideas. 

From the moment you begin your résumé and cover letter, you will be inviting scrutiny. Remember: prospective employers will know nothing about you at first, save for what you send them. If your résumé and cover letter look like something from a high-schooler’s instant messaging sessions, you may find yourself booted out before you’re even given a chance to defend yourself.  

       Avoiding pitfalls of communication can be as simple as refreshing yourself on grammar tutorials. Given the backsliding of American grammar and communications, even a brief review of basic grammar can give you an edge over your competition. 

Does this mean learning every in and out of dangling participles and verb tenses? Not necessarily. Even the slightest bit of attention to elementary rules can make a significant difference. Think of how many times you have avoided using the colon, semicolon, or even a comma because you were unsure of how and when to apply these rules. 

Now think of all the other people out there that are in similar situations. Some may even be current employees of the company you’re scouting out. A surefire way to impress a hiring manager is to deliver a résumé and cover letter free from basic grammar errors.  

Proofing for these errors is just one aspect of the diverse training a professional résumé writer undergoes to deliver high-impact documents. While you may not have the training of one of these professionals, there are some general grammatical guidelines you can follow: 

Commas  

Perhaps the most over and misused punctuation mark, the comma can be your best friend or your downfall. There are many rules that have cropped up for comma use such as whenever you take a breath reading a sentence or when it feels natural to take a pause, but these are flawed rules. 

Generally, a comma is necessary to connect two independent thoughts such as “I like fish” and “they taste great”. You can join the two sentences using a comma when you have two entire thoughts like this. 

While the breath rule does not hold up to testing, you can rely upon one proven method: in cases where you are joining entire thoughts with the words “and”, “but”, “for”, “not”, “or”, “nor”, and “yet”, you will always use a comma. Likewise, if you are listing items like fish, eggs, and cheese, you will use a comma to separate the elements. Some grammarians are used to dropping the last comma in a series (i.e. fish, eggs and cheese). Either method is acceptable as long as you are consistent with your use. 

Semicolon 

Semicolons are a way of joining two thoughts without the use of a comma. Examples of semicolon use include: 

1.    I like fish; they taste great! 

2.    Let’s get a move on; we’re going to be late! 

3.    I had my résumé written by professionals; they did an amazing job! 

Semicolons are also useful for separating elements of a series that also contain commas such as: 

“I like tuna, which is a fish; ham, which is an animal; and bananas, which are fruit.” 

Colon 

       The colon’s primary use is for lists of items. When listing something in a résumé or other document, you will want to preface the list with an introductory explanation such as: 

       “For this job, you will need to the following: clipboard, chart, stethoscope, and prescription pad.” 

Knowing even the basics about the comma, semicolon, and colon can dramatically improve your communications. To further your understanding, you also may seek out inexpensive grammar books like the famous Strunk & White’s, laminated cheat sheets available at most bookstores, or simply Googling specific grammar rules, which are featured on a wide range of Web sites. 

In this day and age, when communication has become more visual than ever, it is essential to establish yourself as someone with a command of language. People may poke fun at you for learning the correct way to use grammar, but once you do, you’ll have a new skill set that will give you an added edge when it comes time for job applications.

By Lynn Horne, RN, OCN