How to Become a Smarter Writer by Solving Word Puzzles

In annual surveys conducted between 2000 and 2020 by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, communication skills – clear writing and speaking – have been at or near the top of the list of “skils that employers prize most.”

According to the 2005 survey, “the number one skill that employers say they want … is the very skill they most often say candidates lack. Many respondents reported that college graduates lack good grammar and writing skills …”
https://writesmart.org/nace-job-skills/2005/

Over time, the writing skills of seemingly well-educated college graduates have continued to decline. Even most of our top-rated schools have failed to heed the call from business, government, and nonprofit leaders to stress the importance of learning how to present good ideas in plain English. https://writesmart.org/nace-job-outlook/2020/

Nowhere is this problem felt more acutely than in the nonprofit world, where the kind of long-winded, jargon-laden writing that may have earned an “A” in college or graduate school will put most potential funders and donors to sleep.

In the Write Smart program, the focus is on applying the “plain English” techniques that
skilled professional writers and editors in the American publishing industry rely on to
communicate clearly and persuasively with their readers. Instead of sitting through
another tedious PowerPoint slideshow, participants in the free 90-minute online class
will learn how to treat sentences as word puzzles — and how to solve writing problems
by putting the pieces together.