Shani Raja is the former Wall Street Journal who’ll make you a better writer in 40 minutes.
Raja’s the course instructor for the writing course, Writing With Flair: How To Become An Exceptional Writer.
He’s worked with some of the world’s most prestigious news publications.
After writing an article for the Economist, Raja joined CFO Europe, one of the Economist’s sister titles, as a features writer. From there, he was a stock market reporter for Bloomberg News which demanded the “utmost clarity and brevity” from its journalists, writes Raja.
During this time his writing improved, attracting new job opportunities. Raja took a full-time editing role at the Wall Street Journal. It’s here where he developed the set of writing standards he teaches in his course.
I’ve been writing professionally for 15 years, my writing improved significantly since I started Raja’s writing programme.
In this blog post, I’ll share a few of Raja’s mindset principles.
4 Mindset Principles to Improve Your Writing
When you’re a modern professional who wants to figure out how to write better, you’re not sure where to start.
There’s a lot of practical steps you can take.
But there’s something even more important.
You need a new way of thinking.
Raja’s practical advice has started to change my approach to writing. I consider my words and meaning more carefully now.
Here are four of the principles that can help in your writing journey.
1. Write With Integrity
Are you being sincere when you write?
Most of us would say yes immediately.
But Raja’s challenging us to reconsider our intentions when we write.
What is my motive? It is to impress the reader, asks Raja?
Think about it.
Does that mean you’re going to use bigger words because you’re looking for an opportunity to show off?
Another aspect of this that resonates with me is the idea of being real and meaning what you say.
As a marketing writer, this one connected with me: I thought about consistency.
If I am writing about a product, for instance, am I helping my reader make a good decision? Even if I have something to sell or promote, am I still being honest? Or, am I deliberately misleading the reader?
2. Yearn to Connect
Do you truly know your reader?
“You should always write with a very strong will to connect with whoever you’re writing for. You should be very serious about making sure your audience is going to get exactly what you’re trying to say in the way you want them to.”
Now, of course, there’s no guarantee that every person who reads your work will interpret it in the way you intended.
But, Raja said, you need to have an intention to connect with a specific audience.
Here you’ll also “cultivate sensitivity”. For instance, if your readers are in a specific part of the world, you might adjust your spelling, British vs American.
Knowing your audience will influence:
- Tone
- Examples and anecdotes
- Words and expressions
And to connect with your audience, you need to know your audience. Raja said this meant understanding your audience’s values, interests, and core beliefs about the world.
You can even extend to job applications, said Raja. For instance, consider the interviewer’s point of view when you write your cover letter. This might influence the terminology you use.
3. Know Your Intent
A good way to keep your writing focussed is to remember your intent.
Raja highlights the different potential intents:
- Inform
- Persuade
- Entertain
- Inspire
He notes that even though you could have different elements of each of these intents in one piece, you need to know your primary intent.
This leads to a “focussed and conscious approach” and lets you “control and direct your ideas”.
One good tip that can help you stick to your primary intent is to write a thesis statement before you write.
4. Don’t be Obsessed With Perfection
This is another great one. How many times have delayed publishing a piece of writing because you were worried it wasn’t just right?
Now, I’m not suggesting you publish your raw, early writing. And neither is Raja.
Instead, he calls on us not to be held back by an obsession with perfect writing.
“Don’t become obsessed with making everything perfect all the time because it can’t happen. I’ve learned as an editor, you’re not capable of making everything you write absolutely perfect. even if that were possible, time doesn’t allow it.
“In the real world, we’re usually writing to some kind of deadline. So we have to focus instead on making it as perfect as possible in the time available.”
Raja said the more time you spent on a piece of the work, the more polished that piece of writing would be.
However, he called this an “endless axis”.
“Focus on making your writing as polished as it can be in the time available and as perfect as possible according to your judgement in that moment.”
Featured image: Photo by Artem Podrez from Pexels
