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p><h1 id="9bba">2. You Should Create a Helpful Paper Trail for Future Co-workers to Follow</h1><p id="e204">It’s always frustrating to be tracking down an issue and trying to solve a bug, and you find a chat from a year ago where someone had the exact same issue as you — only to sum it up with the <i>“Fixed it, nevermind!” </i>response.</p><p id="e9ff">As an engineer, you may be expected to contribute written responses to documents such as:</p><ul><li>Pull Requests</li><li>Documentation</li><li>User Stories and other Project Management-related forums</li><li>Postmortems</li></ul><p id="203e">If someone needs to reference your work in six months, will you have left them a useful trail of information to follow? Recording what happened, the changes you made, and your thoughts and logic behind them can be extremely helpful for anyone who comes along in the future — <i>including future you</i>.</p><h1 id="6519">3. Save time Communicating with Clients</h1><p id="e79f">When communicating with clients or vendors outside your company, either for feedback or support purposes, it’s important to be as concise, precise, and professional in your writing as possible.</p><p id="8c28">If you can explain your software and answer your users’ questions in simple, clear terms, it can help alleviate client confusion and reduce time spent in back-and-forth email chains or support ticket threads. (This is true for documentation as well!)</p><h1 id="7bcf">4. Avoid “This Meeting Could Have Been an Email”</h1><p id="8273">Almost every developer working remotely has signed out of a video call only to wish that they hadn’t just lost the past hour of their life to something that “could have been an email”. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoom_fatigue">Zoom Fatigue is real</a>, and y

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ou should do your best to help your fellow team members avoid it.</p><p id="971c">Writing an email may take you longer than you would have spent on that video call — but it saved everyone else's time (which probably saved the company money, not to mention everyone else’s sanity). You’ve also given your team an email that they can refer back to — just in case someone zoned out a bit on that video call.</p><p id="0b3c">Not every meeting can be an email, but take advantage of the ones that can be!</p><h1 id="91ca">5. Writing is a Leadership Skill</h1><p id="e444">Clear communication is one of the skills that good leaders need to exercise most. When a leader has poor written communication skills it can lead to misunderstandings ranging from unfinished tasks to unclear expectations to hurt feelings. Leaders who cannot write clearly are a liability to their company.</p><p id="5612">On the other hand, everyone appreciates receiving clear instructions and expectations. While it’s also important for a leader to be a clear communicator in general, giving your team and clients well-written correspondence they can come back to and reference is a vital skill.</p><h2 id="64cd">Final Note: Don’t Be Discouraged if English isn’t your First Language!</h2><p id="7ba3">Finally, I wanted to add a note that I have worked with a lot of people — especially engineers — for whom English is not their native language.</p><p id="f239">Honestly, after a certain amount of vocabulary and grammar has been established, I’ve found that people who are writing English as their second language often provide more thoughtful responses.</p><p id="b3db">I’ve seen people greatly improve by being social with their team members, and when in doubt — ask!</p><p id="b57c">Happy writing!</p></article></body>

5 Reasons Developers Should Refine Their Written Communication Skills

Writing might be the most valuable skill while remote work stays

Having worked remotely since 2016, I’ve had the experience of working with hundreds of people, located all around the globe, without ever leaving my house. Overall, it’s been a positive experience, and I can’t imagine going back to an office.

However, remote work comes with its own set of challenges, including new ways of interacting with your coworkers. I’ve come to believe that being able to write clearly and effectively is one of the most valuable skills that a remote worker can have.

1. Most of Your Team Interactions are Written

Whether it’s Slack, Discord, or another application, in my experience most of your team’s interactions are in some kind of chat. This can include both work-related chats, as well social “water-cooler” type chats. You don’t want to be the person who comes in and drops an unedited wall of text that makes readers go cross-eyed.

In an environment where it’s difficult for teams to spend quality time together in person, you need to be able to express yourself in a way that enables your team to get to know you. Let your personality shine through!

2. You Should Create a Helpful Paper Trail for Future Co-workers to Follow

It’s always frustrating to be tracking down an issue and trying to solve a bug, and you find a chat from a year ago where someone had the exact same issue as you — only to sum it up with the “Fixed it, nevermind!” response.

As an engineer, you may be expected to contribute written responses to documents such as:

Pull Requests
Documentation
User Stories and other Project Management-related forums
Postmortems

If someone needs to reference your work in six months, will you have left them a useful trail of information to follow? Recording what happened, the changes you made, and your thoughts and logic behind them can be extremely helpful for anyone who comes along in the future — including future you.

3. Save time Communicating with Clients

When communicating with clients or vendors outside your company, either for feedback or support purposes, it’s important to be as concise, precise, and professional in your writing as possible.

If you can explain your software and answer your users’ questions in simple, clear terms, it can help alleviate client confusion and reduce time spent in back-and-forth email chains or support ticket threads. (This is true for documentation as well!)

4. Avoid “This Meeting Could Have Been an Email”

Almost every developer working remotely has signed out of a video call only to wish that they hadn’t just lost the past hour of their life to something that “could have been an email”. Zoom Fatigue is real, and you should do your best to help your fellow team members avoid it.

Writing an email may take you longer than you would have spent on that video call — but it saved everyone else's time (which probably saved the company money, not to mention everyone else’s sanity). You’ve also given your team an email that they can refer back to — just in case someone zoned out a bit on that video call.

Not every meeting can be an email, but take advantage of the ones that can be!

5. Writing is a Leadership Skill

Clear communication is one of the skills that good leaders need to exercise most. When a leader has poor written communication skills it can lead to misunderstandings ranging from unfinished tasks to unclear expectations to hurt feelings. Leaders who cannot write clearly are a liability to their company.

On the other hand, everyone appreciates receiving clear instructions and expectations. While it’s also important for a leader to be a clear communicator in general, giving your team and clients well-written correspondence they can come back to and reference is a vital skill.

Final Note: Don’t Be Discouraged if English isn’t your First Language!

Finally, I wanted to add a note that I have worked with a lot of people — especially engineers — for whom English is not their native language.

Honestly, after a certain amount of vocabulary and grammar has been established, I’ve found that people who are writing English as their second language often provide more thoughtful responses.

I’ve seen people greatly improve by being social with their team members, and when in doubt — ask!

Happy writing!