Learn and unlearn how to write.

Last week, I mentioned that learning to use the phone was a big deal for my unintentional career path. The gift of gab, while possible to pick up with experience, is not my natural forte. I can, however, think of a particular seemingly intuitive skill to blame for my inadvertent spiral into the sales seat -- writing!

In high school, I ran with my ability to geek out over grammar by joining Sparkman High School's award-winning student newspaper staff. I eventually milked my position as co-editor for all the college scholarships it was worth, which entailed many pages of self-gloating that were written just well enough to make my essays stand out from other applicants at least a handful of times (</self gloating>).

College was a turning point because I learned to throw everything I knew about form and sentence structure out of the window. Between advertising copy writing classes, film courses, and long-winded research papers, my writing became schizophrenic and extremely adaptable.

Perhaps the most mission critical concept I learned was the "AIDA" model for persuasive writing -- Attention leads to Interest leads to Desire leads to Action.

Now I'm pushing out hundreds of emails, proposals, contract amendments, and investment summaries as part of the daily grind. If I escaped my keyboard for more than an hour, my whole world crumbles.

Personal history aside, it can seriously pay to be a good writer. Below are tips from various sources that have helped me tremendously:

1) Read things similar to how you want to write. Need to write a scientific article? A program synopsis? A menu item description? Read ALL THE THINGS in the style of writing you are hoping to achieve.

2) Write for your reader. First, understand who your audience is and what their motive would be for reading whatever you produce. Use words and themes that resonate and make memorable statements to forge a lasting connection (Attention!).   The  rule above can also be intertwined if you are exchanging written correspondence -- I find I have better engagements with clients if I mimic nuances in their own writing (even if it means overusing exclamation points and emoticons ;P !!! ).

3) Forget the rules. The rude awakening I experienced in college still applies. Sentence fragments don't have to be the bane of existence, nor does misuse of punctuation.  Just make sure your point can be understood clearly.

4) Be brief when necessary. Long paragraphs scare some people. If you can make a comprehensible point with less words, then strive for brevity.

5) Practice. Practice. Practice. Writing is a skill that can easily be learned and more easily lost, so create opportunities to practice long-form writing regularly (i.e., start a blog).