The Style of Professionalism

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!