A plethora of strengths in writing can turn a mediocre writer into a high-quality, potentially renowned, author. Some individuals are naturally gifted at creating quality works of literature. A combination of creativity, hard work, and good research skills can contribute to a writer’s success.
However, every type of writer has their own unique skill set. Organized writing requires more academic language use, for instance, while creative writing emphasizes imagination and active skills. Everyone has their unique individualized approach to writing, but there are ways to further your writing career while also bringing out your inherent strengths.
By furthering your writing strengths, you can excel in any writing style and boost your writing skills. In his article, we will discuss some writing tips that can greatly impact your success in your individual writing journey.
What are the Strengths and Qualities of a Good Writer?
Personal strengths make an immense contribution toward achieving one’s writing goals. By identifying your own strengths as a writer, you can make better judgments on which specific topics and types of writing you should pursue.
Many writers learn to utilize their strengths to contribute to their success. There are specific strengths that unite such successful authors and writers across all topics of literature.
A few of the benefits of having such strengths include:
- Assists you in getting a job and advances your career.
- Helps you clearly explain your points, communicate a story, and depict a narrative/persuade others.
- Improves your focus and gets you to learn more about yourself.
- Boosts knowledge, creativity, efficiency, and imagination.
- Gets you more productive and eliminates stress.
15 Must-Have Strengths as a Good Writer
Some strengths are truly key to having a productive writing routine and succeeding as a writer in general. While the writing community is certainly diverse, the best writers share some key strengths.
15 Strengths of a great writer:
- Perseverance
- Being Focused
- Consistent Idea and Content Flow
- Being Goal-Oriented
- Resilience
- Clear and Diverse Word Choice
- Organizational Abilities
- Passion for Reading
- Creativity
- Clear and Concise Writing
- Curiosity
- Confidence
- Persuasive Content
- Proper Use of Emotion
- Networking Skills and Charisma
Perseverance
Writers are bound to be presented with challenges in their careers. Whether it be researching an unfamiliar topic or dealing with difficult clients/bosses, perseverance is key to success.
Being persistent simply involves continuing the writing process, even when you feel like giving up. While it seems easy, this can be difficult at times. Nonetheless, it can undoubtedly be the difference between achieving success and falling short on your goals.
Being Focused
When do even the best writers make silly errors? Usually, this happens when they are unfocused. Avoiding errors must involve being focused.
Having an automatic writing assistant could help you catch such errors, but simply rereading your work will serve the same purpose. Getting enough sleep can also ensure you can stay focused. Also, be sure to avoid distractions while working.
Consistent Idea and Content Flow
Being Goal-Oriented
Resilience
Clear and Diverse Word Choice
Organizational Abilities
Passion for Reading
Creativity
Clear and Concise Writing
Curiosity
Confidence
You should not need to seek approval from anyone else before creating your articles. Have some faith in your work, and be sure to truly speak your mind when writing. Do not write something on someone else’s behalf, unless you feel comfortable doing so.
Your confidence will be evident in your tone of writing. When the audience knows you know what you are talking about, they are more likely to listen.
Persuasive Content
Some types of content require a persuasive approach. For instance, essay writing could focus on convincing the audience of the same view as the author. One of the main aspects of writing a great essay is using logic and emotion to convince the audience to see the world from your perspective.
Utilizing a persuasive approach to writing can give you more power within the industry and establish a clear, professional tone in your work.
Proper Use of Emotion
Networking Skills and Charisma
Getting your name out there can be essential in the writing industry. This is precisely why networking is so key to being a great writer.
Being a great networker can also expose you to many great writing opportunities and you could also meet many new like-minded professionals. You could learn a plethora of new skills from these other writers, which you can later apply to benefit your career.
5 Examples of Weaknesses in Writing
As with any group of professionals, writers are not perfect. They have their own list of weaknesses. These common weaknesses can hold back writers to not achieving their full potential.
A 5 common examples of weaknesses that even quality writers have to include:
- Unengaging Content and Boring Your Readers
- Not Enough Focus
- Lack of Substance
- Odd Flow/Structure
- Long-Winded Sentences
Unengaging Content and Boring Your Readers
Not Enough Focus
Lack of Substance
Often, authors will have their writing spiral into many unrelated directions. This can be confusing to your readers. Instead, choose one topic and really focus on it to make your content sound narrowed and specific.
You can add more substance to your articles by including a personal story, metaphors, citations, research, statistics, or graphs/other visual elements.
Odd Flow/Structure
The smooth flow is consistent and makes logical sense from the first word to the last. It ensures readers do not get confused or lost in the text.
Try to put yourself into the reader’s shoes to see what questions or comments they may have from reading your work. Then, address these questions or rewrite some of the phrasings to make your points clearer.
Long-Winded Sentences
A sentence length mix within your articles can make your text less monotonous. However, sentences should generally be on the shorter side. They create more readable content for readers.
To address this common issue, try cutting your longest sentences into a few shorter ones. Try to keep the average sentence length to 14 words, preferably less.
How to Identify Your Strengths and Weaknesses in Writing?
Unfortunately, many writers are often blind to their own flaws. Other times, they are prone to overfocusing on the negative elements of their writing and overlook their strengths. To best identify your strengths and weaknesses, you should seek the assistance of an objective third party that you trust.
One way to get quality feedback is by asking your friends, family, coworkers, or bosses. If the individual is familiar with your writing style, they can give you some feedback on its engagement level. Be sure that they align with the intended audience, though.
Your boss may be able to provide more in-depth feedback, as he/she has the most consistent access to your work. Consider asking your audience directly, too. Send out a survey to your email list if you have one.
Another great way to assess your skills and flaws is by taking the HIGH5test. It efficiently evaluates both your strengths and weaknesses by giving you a concise overview of your personal abilities. Once you get your strengths and weaknesses test results, all you must do is consider how these abilities contribute to your writing.
What are the Strengths of Academic Writing?
Academic writers have a unique skill set, even when compared to other similarly trained authors.
In academic writing, the authors must be a master of using formal tone, appropriate sentence structure, specific word choice, and use of a third person. These writers should be willing to learn, adapt quickly, be able to argue, and provide high-quality evidence.
How to Turn Weaknesses Into Strengths in Writing
There are many ways to turn your writing flaws into writing skills. In fact, many of the most common weaknesses can be reimagined into strengths. Start by identifying which of the previously mentioned flaws most resonate with you.
From them, you can reapply your weaknesses. Sometimes, you simply need to change the audience you are writing to. Or, you may need to change the topic you are writing about. If you naturally write long, detailed sentences, consider writing more technical articles.
On the other hand, if you struggle with being persuasive and formal, consider writing lighthearted articles. With this method, you will better align your writing style with the correct topic and audience. Then, you must also find ways to grow as a writer.
In general, consider reading more. This can be helpful if your weakness is a limited vocabulary or unimaginative writing. For poor grammar, consider using an online writing assistant like Grammarly. You should also carefully reread your work.
Also, keep your audience in mind when writing. If something you write does not make sense to your readers, rewrite it. Imagine what would resonate most with your audience. If they are technical professionals, write in a rich vocabulary with lots of citations. If your audience is reading for pleasure, consider a more relaxed, informal writing style.
