⭐ Writing skills are essential for an IT specialist career

The importance of soft skills for IT specialists is highly debated. You may be a wonderful Data Analyst, Product Manager, or IT Project Manager, but without writing skills your career opportunities are limited.

Writing is required both for remote and on-site employees. Every meeting you don’t schedule is an extra cup of coffee. Effective written communication gives you exactly that.

Great writing addresses the problems and concerns of specific readers. It’s your job to enable collaboration by effective communication with team members, stakeholders, or end-users. Depending on the reader you may delve into details or provide a big picture. You can empower decision-making by delivering factual information in the right form and at the right time.

Depending on the form of writing, you need to stick to various styles. E-mail, Project documentation, Blog post, and Knowledge texts have different requirements. You may use more charts & diagrams or stick to plain essay-like text, stick to facts or provide an opinion, establish stability or enable debate.

Another important aspect of writing is Argumentation. Universities teach Logic only to Classic or Humanities students. As a result, IT specialists often lack skills for argumentative writing. To boost your logical skills, check out a free book A Guide to Good Reasoning from the University of Minnesota.

If you aren’t a native English speaker just like me, I’d recommend you deepen your Business English and Technical English. Test your level at Cambridge first. Then you can start with a Free Udemy course. Continue your education with free Harvard online courses. If you want more practical examples check out talkenglish.com.

Most useful resources on Writing for IT specialists in 2022

Here’s my compilation of the most useful resources you can read on Writing:

1. LEADERSHIP LAB: The Craft of Writing Effectively – YouTube – great lecture about functions of writing.
2. The most important soft skill is … writing (substack.com) – why writing is important.
3. Writing Skills: Definition and Examples | Indeed.com – what is writing.
4. 14 Tips for Becoming a Better Writer | Indeed.com – entry-level advice for writing.
5. LEADERSHIP LAB: Writing Beyond the Academy 1.23.15 – YouTube – theoretical base of writing.
6. Linguistics, Style and Writing in the 21st Century – with Steven Pinker – YouTube – theoretical base of writing.
7. How to Create Mouth-Watering Blog Posts (getfreeebooks.com) – great ebook if you write a blog.
8. Writing Technical Content | Mailchimp Content Style Guide – several practical pieces of advice on writing tech advice.
9. Information Strategies for Communicators – Open Textbook (umn.edu). This book is intended for journalists but you can extract value from it too.
10. 📌 Methods of sharing knowledge with other teams – my article about sharing knowledge between teams.

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