• Replies 17 replies
  • Subscribers 2 subscribers
  • Views 2646 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related

Scrubbing up on English skills

Carly

Hi 

I currently work in HR and have done for about 8 months now, two months ago I started my CIPD level 3, all is going well (passed the first unit today!) 

I just had a 121 with my line manager, who has told me my communication could be a show stopper in my career and is what could stop me to making it as an HR manager, which has left me rather disheartened. To me, my grammar and written English has been a little over average, clearly to my employer it is not. He would like me to explore how I 'write' better and produce documents. 

Does anyone have any advice or know of a good book I can read to better my skills? 

Many thanks 

Carly 

Parents
  • Hi Carly
    First of all, welcome!
    The old ones can still be the best - for example
    www.ourcivilisation.com/.../

    Someone's writing style can be a bit like Marmite, so you first maybe need a considered and objective view about whether or not it really is a problem. Not too many people are blessed with great written fluency, but, up to a point, does it really matter much, provided the main points get across?

    There are all manner of report writing etc courses around but most of them will be derived from good old Sir Ernie above.

    Learning by doing can help a great deal. You say you've not hit any problems with your CIPD course but maybe another course requiring long and lucid essays etc that get rigorously marked might help.

    Also, I think a lot of people pick up literary fluency from wide reading - do you read a lot of books yourself? If not you might like to try some good modern novels such as by Hemingway or Steinbeck or Catcher in the Rye by Salinger or even older stuff such as Moby *** or even older such as Charles Dickens - if you critically take in a lot of good writing, there may well be some osmosis starts!
Reply
  • Hi Carly
    First of all, welcome!
    The old ones can still be the best - for example
    www.ourcivilisation.com/.../

    Someone's writing style can be a bit like Marmite, so you first maybe need a considered and objective view about whether or not it really is a problem. Not too many people are blessed with great written fluency, but, up to a point, does it really matter much, provided the main points get across?

    There are all manner of report writing etc courses around but most of them will be derived from good old Sir Ernie above.

    Learning by doing can help a great deal. You say you've not hit any problems with your CIPD course but maybe another course requiring long and lucid essays etc that get rigorously marked might help.

    Also, I think a lot of people pick up literary fluency from wide reading - do you read a lot of books yourself? If not you might like to try some good modern novels such as by Hemingway or Steinbeck or Catcher in the Rye by Salinger or even older stuff such as Moby *** or even older such as Charles Dickens - if you critically take in a lot of good writing, there may well be some osmosis starts!
Children