Language is the bread and butter of any company’s success. The first client that is enticed to work with you will be drawn in by what’s said on the front page of your website, what your first hellos are, and how you communicate via e-mail; that’s all language, whether it’s written or spoken. It is even common now to hire a language translation service to keep from pigeon-holing yourself with just the English language. However, something else has been happening recently within the corporate world: you’re getting tired. You’re tired of writing, reading, and even, at times, tired of speaking; it’s something else to add to your huge to-do list. Therefore, if you think you may be leaning this way, here are 10 signs that you can look for when deciding if you need to re-invest in your written language.
1. YOU FIND YOURSELF USING ABBREVIATIONS MORE THAN EVER
Abbreviations are great to incorporate into your day-to-day language, especially for things like Facebook and Twitter, but they’re not something to get lazy with. For day-to-day company correspondence, website copy, internal communications, and for client correspondence, you should be typing and spelling like a professional. No abbreviations and no slang.
2. YOU’RE GETTING BORED WHEN YOU READ YOUR OWN WRITING
You just read through one of your own company e-mails and did a five-second blink before realizing you were not understanding a single word. Running a company is hard work, but your writing is an essential a part of that; it should make things pop, not have your readers fall asleep.
3. YOU REVEL IN HEARING OTHERS SPEAK
This one’s weird. But if you’re working on content for your company and a team member comes in to chat, and you are thrilled for an excuse not to continue – then something is definitely wrong.
4. YOU WRITE LIKE YOU SPEAK
Don’t write like you speak; written language doesn’t work like that. By doing so, you’ll most likely end up with a ton of illegible run-on sentences.
5. YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU’RE WRITING ANYMORE
You’ve lost the meaning of your words. You’ve started writing purely for content’s sake, and have lost the true essence of what the written language can really be and, more importantly, you’ve lost what you’re trying to say.
6. YOU BECOME INTIMIDATED EVEN WHEN WRITING AN EMAIL
When you start putting off writing e-mails because you feel like it’s the same old thing over and over again, you need to reinvigorate your words.
7. YOU FIND YOU’RE CONSTANTLY ASKING PEOPLE TO WRITE IT FOR YOU
You’re now passing your writing duties down to someone else and are finding it hard to cope. Running your company is your top priority, of course, but when you lose touch with your voice, you can lose touch with a lot of other things, too. Mainly, the voice of your company.
8. WHEN YOU READ WHAT YOU WRITE AND YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU’RE SAYING
This is something that happens when you start writing how you speak; if you feel like you can’t understand yourself, put it down and move on to something else. Then, when you have a clearer conception of your voice, you can continue.
9. YOU DREAD WRITING LIKE YOU DREAD BUMPER-TO-BUMPER TRAFFIC
You pass work onto your team members even though you should be doing it yourself. Your throat gets dry every time you sit down to open even your e-mail, and the thought of getting a language translation service to come look at it is just downright frightening. You know you have to revamp what is written, but that means you’ll also have to hunker down and write it, too.
10. YOU COULDN’T CARE LESS WHAT A CONJUNCTION IS AND WHAT IT DOES FOR A SENTENCE
You know what grammar does without thinking, it’s so natural as you get older to know intuitively how a sentence works. But the amount of caring you have for the mechanics of how to improve the written word has completely disappeared.
This isn’t the end; you may be suffering from a lack of enthusiasm for language, which is stopping you from hiring a language translation service, which will help your company reach different markets—but don’t worry. Simply taking an evening off to recharge your zest for your written content could give you the burst of energy you need. Also, you could consider bringing in a professional copywriter. After this, you’ll be ready in no time to hire your language translation service providers and revel in all they can do for you.
