I wish they had told us all, in high school and college, how important our communication skills were to our future. Want to stand out from the crowd at work or in business? Polish your writing skills and I can assure you, you will be ahead of the pack. Writing is important in customer relations, marketing, human resources and more. Let's look at some ways you can be sure your writing doesn't look sloppy and amateurish.

I wish they had told us all, in high school and college, how important our communication skills were to our future. Want to stand out from the crowd at work or in business? Polish your writing skills and I can assure you, you will be ahead of the pack. Writing is important in customer relations, marketing, human resources and more. Let's look at some ways you can be sure your writing doesn't look sloppy and amateurish.

Many people don't enjoy reading for pleasure anymore. This is a shame because it is one of the fastest ways to improve your own writing. If you don't read much, start incorporating business books and magazines into your writing improvement plan. As you read, make note of style, sentence structure, grammar and punctuation. You'll gain additional knowledge as a bonus!

We've all become reliant on spell check to catch our writing errors. Spelling and grammar check are great tools but they are not foolproof. After you've used spell/grammar check, do a final proofread or ask your best proofreader to do it for you.

Revise, revise, revise. It can take several revisions before you get an important letter, document or piece of marketing material written with polish, power and persuasion. Keep editing until you get it right (and this helps you practice and improve your writing in the long-term).

Some words are commonly misused. Words like loose vs. lose, it's vs. its and affect vs. effect are often used improperly. To see a list of these words so you can avoid misusing them, do a web search for commonly misused words and you will find several good references. Bookmark one or two of these sites to refer to routinely when writing.

As a business owner it is important that you keep a writing/style guide on hand. Professional writers refer to these often so you should not expect to write well without one. There are also laminated cheat sheets you can purchase to keep on hand as a quick reference.

Ernest Hemingway pointed out that good writers use short sentences. Be brief! Don't tell people what you are going to tell them (i.e. "in this article, we'll discuss..."). Just tell them. Avoid fluff or fillers like "however" and "of course". Edit and see how brief you can be while still communicating your point clearly.

Be aware of your local language. Different regions of our country butcher English in different ways ("I seen that" versus the correct "I saw that" and "Can I go with?" versus the correct "Can I go with you?" or "I should of" vs. "I should have"). Once you are aware of them, you can begin to erase those errors in your writing.

Your writing is one of the most powerful ways you convey the credibility and professionalism of your business. Sloppy writing conveys sloppy business methods to current and potential customers. Invest time in improving this basic, but crucial skill.