Why Writing is as Important as Coding in Today’s Job Market
The point’s been hammered home enough. Coding is a skill that’s needed to land the jobs of today and tomorrow.
But many in the business world say there’s another skill people are going to need. Whether you’re going to be a good designer, developer or analyst, you’re also going to need to be a good writer. The problem is that not many people are one.
Journalist Katherine Schwab recently wrote in Fast Company that many of today’s designers are not as fluent in their own language as they are in things like JavaScript. This is unfortunate, since as Schwab writes: “Users still depend on copy to interact with apps and other products. If designers don’t know how to write well, the final product – be it a physical or digital one – can suffer as a result.”
But writing isn’t necessary only for design jobs, it’s needed in any professional job you’ll have.
“Business is all about communication and if you can’t communicate properly, regardless of the kind of position that you’re in, then it’s going to be very difficult for you to be successful,” says Shelley Rinehart, director of graduate studies at the faculty of business at University of New Brunswick’s Saint John campus.
But with the spotlight shining right now on tech and coding education in schools, Rinehart says we may be losing focus on fundamental skills like writing.
“I’m not sure I’d say that it’s necessarily overlooked, but certainly there are other things that are taking our time away from the focus on the basics. So literacy, whether it’s writing or reading or financial literacy, we need to have those fundamental building blocks,” she says. “I completely understand starting early on things that are developmental skill and coding would be one of those, but we also have to make time for other fundamentals.”
Even in growing tech-based companies, writing and content creation are increasingly important. You can make a cool product, but you can’t make money if you can’t sell it and connect with your customers. This is something Moncton-based Alongside, a company aiming to improve and simplify the hiring process, has used strong writing and compelling content to achieve
“The content is basically one of the drivers for a lot of our lead generation campaigns. Not just content on ‘top hiring tips’ though they are helpful things. It’s more or less content to help our customers and if we’re writing answers [to] the questions they have or the things that they experience, it usually tends to drive better results for us,” says Emily Brennan, marketing manager for Alongside.
“That’s the approach we’ve always had when we go to write content, which is we have to understand our audience we are targeting.”
Brennan says strong writing skills are something the company looks for when hiring.
“There are tools to help them become a better writer in terms of a grammar and spelling standpoint, but it’s more someone who feels comfortable writing and sitting there focusing for a few hours and just plugging something out and being creative that’s very important,” she says.
“It’s a lot of work. It’s not an easy thing to do, and it’s important for the whole company to understand that as well and understand that it’s all about attracting customers. They will come on board with you if they are familiar with you and you help them out with something.”
In order to get make sure kids develop both the fundamentals and the technology skills they need early on, Rinehart recommends finding ways to combine the two in learning.
“I think in the case of being a good writer, practice makes perfect. Because writing is just a visualization of thought. So I think isolating being a good writer is probably a mistake,” she says. “What we should be doing is integrating that into all of our learning activities. For example, along with the code that you did, write a paragraph that explains what it does and how to use it or why you even did it.”
Rinehart says it comes down to literacy, something New Brunswick as a whole needs to improve on. Not everyone needs to become an epic writer, but without good literacy, kids and adults won’t be successful in any kind of job.
“Reading is very important because that’s how you learn the art of writing. It’s like anything else. Once you have the basics, they sky’s the limit, but you have to the basics” says Rinehart.
“As soon as you lose the basics, it’s like trying to build a house but you didn’t put a basement in. If there’s no foundation, there’s no hope for success.”