Do you struggle?
- [ ] While trying to prepare your next big presentation?😓
- [ ] Shy away from looking directly into the audience’s eyes while speaking? 😰
- [ ] wish you knew the secret to speak fluent English? 🙄
How many points did you tick off the above checklist?
Don’t worry, because you are not alone!
We have all been through such emotional turmoil in the workplace. And they often leave us thinking -
“Why do I find it intimidating to speak up in a meeting for?”
“Why am I unable to understand the words spoken by a senior?”
“Why can’t I give a presentation without stammering?”
Do you also feel trapped due to communication barriers in workplace because of English?
Remember when you thought you knew what you wanted to speak? And often, as soon as you start speaking, you lose your train of thought.
“What’s next? How do I go from here?”
“Why is it always so difficult to say what’s on my mind? I worked so hard for this presentation!”
“What if I mess it up by misusing words? I want to leave a good impression on my boss’s boss. What if he laughs at me?”
This happens because when you speak:
- You lack clarity of thoughts.
- You struggle with word choices.
- You don’t have a structure for your speech.
English language closes the gaps between people from different regions. Yet, it also creates communication barriers in the workplace such as:
- You feel embarrassed in front of your team members. Despite being many years senior to them you can’t communicate with clarity.
- You forget what you wanted to speak while delivering a presentation in front of a prospective client.
- You come from a vernacular background such as Hindi, Tamil, and Marathi. And you find it challenging to keep up with the fluency of your metropolitan colleagues.
So, what is the solution to your problem?
Here is my suggestion: “Write it down.” Writing allows you to start finding answers to all the above questions. How? Let me answer.
Speaking is often spontaneous. When you speak, your mind circles around with too many questions such as:
“Am I making any sense?”
“Oh no, they’re not getting it at all.”
“I think I have lost them somewhere.”
“Can I start again?”
But you can put an end to all this overthinking, nervousness, and anxiousness. How?
Here’s how: by writing before you speak to improve conversation skills in English.
So that you have enough time to find the answers to all those questions by:
Understanding, comprehending, and thinking
Filtering and reasoning
Planning and organizing
Correcting
Writing organises your thoughts and helps improve your language skills.
Speaking without preparation leads to disorganised thoughts. In turn, your sentences lack structure. Why? Because it’s spontaneous and casual.
Whereas, writing allows you to focus and reflect more on what you want to say. It will also help in drafting better sentences in email writing.
Let me explain.
Once you have written your first draft, you can put it aside. You can take a second look, a third look, maybe more. This way, you have more time to tweak and determine if your message comes across with clarity.
Let’s understand this better by looking at the following example.
1st draft:
I am happy that you have chosen me for the position of the senior manager. I am confident that I would be the best person to be added to your team.
2nd draft:
I am thrilled to become a part of an upcoming startup. I look forward to contributing as a team lead of a hardworking team.
3rd draft:
I am thrilled to take over my duties as the Senior Manager of your upcoming startup. I look forward to leading a hardworking team.
Can you figure out the differences in the above three sentences? Let me answer it.
- Better word usage: in place of “happy”, the 2nd draft uses “thrilled.”
- Better sentence structure: “I am confident I would be the best person” to “I look forward to contributing”
- Professionalism: The third draft organises your thoughts by mentioning the position you applied for with the duties you would take over.
Introducing new vocabulary is much easier in writing than speaking. In turn, it gives you enough fodder to think and have control.
Writing helps you figure out when to speak and when to pause and improve English speaking skills.
Writing allows you to:
- Structure random thoughts.
- Add proper punctuation and pauses to emphasise your message.
- Identify, recognise and revise your mistakes.
Original draft: “I like your hard work and dedication for work and its good to have such people.”
1st edit: “I appreciate your hard work and dedication because it inspires others too.”
2nd edit: “You are dedicated and you are hardworking also. Keep up this attitude that inspires others.”
3rd edit: “Your dedication is inspiring. Keep up this work attitude!”
What’s the difference between the original writing till the third edit?
The last sentence emphasizes your message with a pause.
Writing before speaking helps you choose better words.
Writing realises your thoughts into ideas. So you don’t choose the wrong word ~~~~and decrease the impact of your ideas. It allows you to focus to add more clarity to your communication.
Afterall, it’s better to struggle on paper than stutter in the conference room!
When you write down your thoughts before speaking, you have already gone through the process of choosing the right vocabulary. So, when you speak, your mind automatically goes back to the words and sentence structures.
Between speaking and staying silent, time is of the essence. And clarity is necessary to master your English language skills.
But if you can dress your thoughts with clarity during that time? You will strike gold and maybe sweep everyone off their feet!
Writing helps you think, plan, and correct yourself. It also saves you from the embarrassment of misusing a word during a conversation!
Moreover, self-correction allows you to notice the errors and mistakes, pushing you to correct them. It also brings your attention to the problem areas while speaking so that you can keep working on them.
Writing makes you a good storyteller by giving direction to your train of thought.
“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” - Maya Angelou.
Have a story that you want to tell but are not sure how to? That, indeed, is very agonizing.
Speaking and conversation skills in English is an art of persuasion. Hence, you also need to be a good storyteller to engage your audience.
“It rained heavily yesterday and I saw a rainbow rising with beautiful colors that made me look at the sky with a big smile.
“Yesterday, it rained heavily. I could slowly see a rainbow rising. Red, yellow, orange and the sky was full of colours again.”
“It rained furiously yesterday. I could see the sky slowly changing its colours. The horizon was painted with all the shades of reds and oranges.”
What’s the difference between the above three sentences? The structure of sentences aligns better with your thoughts in the third sentence. It creates a rhythm to the story with proper sequence.
Writing increases your focus and draws your audience’s attention .
From presentations and meetings to brainstorming sessions - spoken English language skills are a huge part of workplace communication. A lot can happen in English. It’s a vast ocean of multiple meanings of the same word, Grammar, punctuations, and vocabulary.
And it is often challenging to impart the knowledge we thought we had to others. Moreover, when we try to describe it, we often either lose our way or simply say it wrong.
So, what is the solution for speaking exactly what you want to say? Here are some ways to improve English speaking skills:
- Highlight important points to draw the attention of your audience to the gist of the idea.
- Label headings of speech to make you remember difficult points and focus on them.
- Add dramatic pauses and a closing statement.
Today, you can take help from various digital tools to polish your grammar and tone and draw the audience’s attention to the most important points.
- Grammarly for checking Grammar, punctuations, active and passive voice, modifiers, transition words
- Hemingway Editor for better readability.
- Blackboard Radio for mentoring working professionals in learning English as a communication skill.
- Summari, a Chrome extension for summarising the most important points and labelling them into finer points. It works as a great note-taking system too.
- Roam Research for taking notes when browsing the Internet to create new content.
Transferring writing skills to speaking skills is not an overnight task. It’s a continuous process because every day, you will face new struggles and come across challenging words.
Final thoughts: Invest in regular writing to grow as a working professional.
investing in writing regularly will give you good command over your spoken English skills. In turn, your workplace communication will also see a huge jump.
How? Here’s what you achieve by making writing before speaking a regular habit:
- You will have enough time to ****start over if you go wrong somewhere.
- You will find new words and work on Grammar.
- You will be more aware of your mistakes and recognise them.
- You will write better-structured emails.
- You will increase your knowledge of the specific field.
- You will deliver a better presentation.
- You will listen and understand different accents and pronunciations.
And most importantly, you learn not to misuse a word or stammer.
Written English steers you towards working on your self-confidence. And writing to speak English pushes you towards growing as a working professional. At BBR English, our expert mentors from IITs and IIMs have designed online courses to improve English speaking skills.
You can sign up for the Foundation session at only Rs. 499 to find out which course works best to achieve your desired goals!
Workplace communication isn’t going to be the same from now on! 😃
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