From the moment they first set eyes on you, people jump to all kinds of conclusions. Deciding how likeable, credible, trustworthy, and even intelligent they think you are. What is more, these early impressions stick and are often only skin deep—in that the look of your face is the only data point many people use to form their opinion. That means poor writing doesn't just make you look bad—it cements a reputation of low credibility that is hard to undo as people hunt for hits to confirm their initial opinion.
If your writing is riddled with jargon, disorganised, or—heaven forbid—self-important, expect your audience to judge you accordingly. Even seasoned professionals can appear untrustworthy or incompetent if they fail to write clearly. The sad part? They may actually be brilliant in other ways. But poor writing will bury capability every time as organisational life is a world of proxies. Also, why people who are "not technical" tend to get promoted over people with boring but consistent technical capabilities.
If you have heard "clear writing is clear thinking", then you are already ahead of the curve as the aphorism remains as relevant today as it was in the age of ink-stained manuscripts. In an era of corporate jargon, management-speak, and the egregious abuse of PowerPoint, the ability to write well is in steady decline. A decline which ChatGPT and other AI tools is accelerating. This last comment may strike many as strange, given AI is now the go to in saving time when producing reports. But give me a moment to unpack, and I can help you to separate grammatically accurate prose from good writing.
