Knowing what to do with your life
is hard. Knowing what to do next is hard. But I found an article that gives
career advice in a comfortable way. Reading this article also inadvertently
gave me writing advice by following the author's example. Professionalism is
hard. Professional writing can be hard in general. Especially when it seems
like you are writing entirely different than you would ever speak. But, does
professional writing really have to be that hard? Is it really as different as
it feels to us? Can we write how we would speak and still make it sound
professional? Well, take a large a deep breath because the answer is for sure…
YES!
An example of giving information in
a comfortable and easy-to-understand way is from one of Scott Logsdon’s article
specifically, but he and David Platt are a couple of authors of articles I like
to read on the website Radical. David Platt
has also written many books of which I enjoy reading (Google his name and
they’ll pop right up!). They both have a way of conversing professionally, but
in a conversational type of way. Check out this example from Logsdon from the
article “Three
Questions to Consider Before Going into College”:
“Choose
a field that is in high demand throughout the world. Over the next several years,
you have the opportunity to shape your vocational identity through the field in
which you specialize. Specialization can occur through jobs people pay you to
do and through education you receive. Certain fields are in higher demand
across the world than others. As you think about who you will become, keep in
mind that you can choose a field that opens many options for you or a field
that immediately limits where you can serve. There are websites that can help
you understand which fields provide the most open doors for international
service. For example, software developers, engineers, medical professionals,
and accountants can live and serve in many countries.”
This
paragraph explains choosing a field of work in a very professional way, but it
doesn’t sound too far off how someone might speak it. This author uses a
professional tone and writing style by using complete sentences, explaining in
detail how to go about choosing a field, and using good word choice to do so. I
hear people say things like, “Writing professionally is hard because you have
to use big, fancy words that you’d never use in normal conversation.” This couldn’t be further
from the truth as Logsdon shows us.
The
author gets his professional point across using everyday conversational words.
His tone is professional and educational, but in a conversational way. Logsdon
never uses an out of the ordinary word in that paragraph (or in the whole
article). This paragraph shows a great example of what a professional, but conversational
piece can look like. When we think of fiction we think of things like diction,
imagery, and descriptive detail to be important. Professional writing uses the
same elements as fiction--diction, imagery, and descriptive detail--just in a
different way.
In
a fiction story we focus on descriptions to tell us all about the details, we
focus on diction to describe those details, and we focus on imagery which is
the overall picture we want a reader to see. But, have you ever noticed that
professional writing can do the same thing? Take Logsdon’s example from the
same article as before:
“As
you choose your field, consider those who have little access to the gospel.
Websites like Joshua Project can help you discover people and places where
basic gospel infrastructure is needed. Pray for them. Gather your friends to
pray for them. Research the most-needed job skills in that country’s major
cities. Are there healthy church planting efforts that you could join, even if
only for a short season?”
Now, think about this above paragraph.
This gives attention to diction, descriptive detail, and imagery. Logsdon uses
very “business-like” words to describe his points. He uses words like access,
infrastructure, planting, and season. These words give way to business-like
language, which is very intriguing considering this is a religious context he
is speaking with here. The word choice used here talks about helping to
discover people and places, gathering friends, and researching job skills. When
thinking about discovering people and places, you likely already start seeing a
place and the people in it. Imagery. Just like fiction! When thinking about
gathering friends, you likely already start seeing your friends gathered
together in one spot in your mind. Guess what? Imagery. Just like fiction! When
thinking about researching job skills, you likely already start seeing what job
skills you possess and how you perform them daily. What is it called?
I.M.A.G.E.R.Y. Just like FICTION!
So,
we mostly just talked about imagery. But we specifically talked about how
imagery is created through diction and descriptions. So, next time you are
struggling with how to write professionally, think about how you would describe
it in spoken word to someone you’ve never met (we often speak to people we
don’t know in a more “professional” way). Then, write it down how you would
tell a person you don’t know. Voila! You have your own professional, but
conversational, writing piece. Yes, it really is just that easy!
