I enjoy practicing my technical skills. However, now that I’ve graduated from college and am working as a software engineer, I’ve begun to focus more on communication. Here is some of what I’ve learned, though it’s all been said before.
Consider your audience
The most important thing when communicating to is to consider your audience. Indeed, the whole point of communication is to share ideas with someone else, i.e. your audience. The purpose of writing an document is not to have written the document, but rather to convey information to the reader.
Be brief
Distill your communication down to its essence. Say what must be said, and nothing more.
Use structure
When writing a document, the easier your document is to read, the more likely it is that your audience will actually read it. Empower a reader to quickly and efficiently get what they want from your document by:
- Splitting up your document into sections with clear headings.
- Using bulleted lists or tables for structured information.
- Keeping the word count low.
Lay out a plan
In e.g. project briefs, it is prudent to define explicit deliverables and milestones.