How to annoy your reader: Workplace communication problems

Communication Articles | January 23, 2012

If you want to get your point across clearly, avoid The Language Lab's "How Not to Get Read Checklist."

When I sit down to write a blog post what’s most important to me is how best to help my readers improve their workplace communications. I like to focus on the most positive ways for dealing with challenging situations.

But not today! Instead, I’m going to show you how you can make sure people WON’T read your workplace communications, be they emails, reports, cover letters or business proposals. Here are some surefire ways to turn off your readers. And I’ve included brief examples in italics.

How NOT To Get Read Checklist:

1. Use Jargon: “IMHO, in the ramp up to this initiative we don’t want any siloing. We need all hands on deck for the intel download.”

2. Be Disorganized: “This report starts with the problem we need to address. But first let’s look at some of the background. And of course, it’s important to get right to some of the solutions as well.”

3. Ramble: “The reason I would like this job is because I have always wanted to be in the field of finance and obviously having a university degree as an electrical engineer does not immediately seem as though I would be the best candidate. But I have spent a great deal of time in banks, and study the stock market with considerable interest over breakfast every day.”

4. Use Complicated Language: “Unfortunately there was an egregious error made in our last employee communiqué which we hope to summarily rectify via our new survey protocol.”

5. Be Offensive: “In conclusion, the project was completed in spite of interference from a number of employees who are clearly a few bricks short of a load. To move forward we’ll need to lose some of this dead wood.”

So there you have it – five simple ways to annoy your reader and make sure your workplace communications won’t be read. Or if they do get read, they’ll certainly not be appreciated or acted upon swiftly!

Of course you realize the examples are more than a little tongue-in-cheek. Yet, the fact remains, if your writing is disorganized, relies on jargon, uses complicated language, run on sentences and, heaven forbid, is offensive, you’re not likely to persuade your reader that what you have to say is important.

And being persuasive is what it’s all about. You do want your reader to quickly grasp and agree with the ideas and information you are sharing with them, don’t you? And you do want them to be on your side.

This list of suggestions brings me to one final “See.”

Send us your favorite tip for how best to get workplace communication read and we’ll publish it in our monthly newsletter. We’re also giving away a free copy of our Quick Guide to Better Writing for the 5 top tips.

Article Tags: Workplace Communication

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Sandra Folk is a Toronto-based educational consultant and award-winning university lecturer. She set up The Language Lab to help business executives and employees write and express themselves more effectively. Sandra understands how poor communication skills can damage an organization's reputation or diminish your professional image.