Conveying a message in a written form is not as easy as one might think. At least not if you believe the literary theorist Wolfgang Iser, who argued that the reading and interpretation of a text were just as individualised as the reader him- or herself. Written communication is therefore not merely an act of transmitting a specific message to a receiver, but a dynamic process in which the sender and the receiver have an equal impact on how the message is ultimately understood.

This view point might sound a bit odd, but in my opinion it is what makes written communication both divers and challenging to work with. In order to get my message across to someone – be it a friend, a co-worker or a customer – I have to have some basic understanding or idea of how the receiver might react to the message that I’m trying to convey.

For instance, when I want to send an internal message in a company, I have to have an understanding of the company’s internal culture, my co-workers’ embodiment and understanding of this culture, and how I should convey my message in order for it to be received as intended – and that is just some of the factors that have to be counted into my decision. I also have to think about the nature of the message I’m trying to send, how it is best presented, whether it aligns with the company values, is it easy to understand and does it inspire the change, impact or reaction that I have intended?

Communication in the 21st century is rapidly changing and so are the requirements. It is no longer enough to merely transmit a message on a one-way channel. You have to interact with and understand the receiver, include them in the process and be open to modifications if need be. The message also has to be adaptable to multiple channels in order to meet and succeed the individual receiver’s expectation to you as the sender.

Conveying a message through written communication as oppose to face-to-face communication is often challenged by the lack of facial expression, tone of voice and situational feel. No matter how loud words can be on a piece of paper, there is often a chance that the receiver might misinterpret or misunderstand the message. For instance, I have experienced another co-worker panicking after receiving an email from her superior, because the superior had formulated herself in such a way, that my co-worker thought she was about to be fired. It later turned out that it was never the superior’s intent, and that her formulation of the email had merely been an attempt to stress how urgent the task at hand was.

When it comes to “talking past each other,” written communication has a larger error margin than verbal communication. You might think that your message has been received as you intended, but sometimes you may come across people who have received the message, misunderstood it, but who are simply too embarrassed to admit that they might need further elaboration to truly understand what you meant. I have sometimes found myself in both situations: as the one misunderstanding the message and the one being misunderstood – and so have you probably.

For instance, I had a falling out with the University of Copenhagen because of some faulty information on their website, which had let me to believe that there was a different set of rules that applied to my specific study situation, than those that the University of Copenhagen had intended for me. After some written correspondence between them and me, the communication had become so muddled that we were going nowhere. I didn’t feel like my message was getting through, so I decided to take a much different approach in order to jump-start the communication and shed light on the issue at hand: So I wrote a short pitch about my situation and send it to minor and major newspapers asking for their help. Some of them replied back within a few days and ultimately Uniavisen (the University Post of Copenhagen) ended up interviewing me and publishing an article about my deadlock with the university. This set things into motion and soon after, I was invited to a meet with the student counsellor from my faculty. Two more articles followed: First a response from the faculty, who wanted to look into the current student counsel procedure and then a follow up about the choices I had made afterwards as a result of the miscommunication.

Minimising and even removing the room for misunderstandings and misinterpretations from written communication is one of the things that interests me the most in my work. Being able to understand and consider the various facets of written communication in order to convey my message as clearly as possible is something that I am really passionate about. Understanding company culture, cultural differences, deciding on a formal vs. an informal tone of voice, the meaning of words and how to compose them, the impact that I want the message to have, as well as how content and words of the message are presented and received can be a complex, but also an interesting challenge.

Both inside and outside the company, written communication is vital. It is both a means to getting a message across to a large number of colleagues, as well as a way to connect and maintain a good relationship with customers at home and abroad.

It is my experience so far that good written communication can be achieved by:

  • Making the message as clear possible – what it the impact that you want it to have and why is it important to the receiver?

  • Understanding the factors that might impact how the receiver understands the message such as culture, language barriers and the channel through which the message is conveyed

  • And if in doubt, politely reach out to the receiver and invite them to share their understanding of the message in order to clarify and reconsider how to improve the message henceforth.

This is not to understate the complexity of written communication. I believe that written communication succumbs to a lot more scrutiny than verbal communication, but this is also why I like working with the medium. You have to be precise and thoughtful when you formulate a message that others have to understand. It takes thorough work and consideration to convey the right message to the right people – and it is that thoroughness and precision that I value the most.

Communication English