Written by: Marsha
So a panda walks into a café, orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air. The waiter asks, “Why did you do that?” The panda tosses him a wildlife manual and says, “I’m a panda. Look it up.”
The waiter opens the manual and finds, “Panda. Large black and white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves.” This joke is the premise for a book called Eats, Shoots & Leaves, written by Lynne Truss, a former editor, about the poor state of punctuation and grammar in North America.
Now, this topic is near and dear to me, and I will admit, I’m a bit of a writing snob, myself. I judge when I see people using there/their/they’re or your/you’re incorrectly. And don’t get me started on “irregardless.” There is no such word!
Luckily, in our Writing Skills for Trainers workshop, we review punctuation, active vs. passive sentences, noun-pronoun disagreement, incorrect parallel structure, subject-verb disagreement, and dangling participles. Let’s be honest, when was the last time you even thought about a dangling participle! And that’s not all. We discuss commonly misused words like, affect/effect, e.g./i.e., that/which, and who/whom, to name a few.
We also take your writing to a whole new level, in just one day. We show you how to translate job-related knowledge and skill into clear, concise, and complete terms for your target audience. We also examine the priorities of an instructional designer: to design instructionally effective and graphically appealing materials.
Here are five quick tips to consider for more effective writing:
1. Sentences need to be short – use 15-20 words.
2. The best way to highlight sentences or words on a page is to bold them.
3. A simple, single-column format is the easiest to read, create, and edit.
4. Two-column formats are best for job aids.
5. Margins should occupy 40% of the page.
Let’s face it. In today’s world, most of our communication is done via writing. With emails, texts, and instant messaging, who even has face-to-face meetings anymore? Although we don’t like to admit it, people form impressions when they see a punctuation or grammatical error. Come on, do tell! What writing tips can you share with your fellow instructional designers? What’s your biggest challenge in writing? And don’t worry, I promise not to judge!
