In some ways, just as important as the spoken word. People are judged on their writing abilty. I have learned two important things over the years (actually more but these are my two most important), #1, edit yourself; spelling, correct word usage, word omision, etc. #2 Less is more. Sometimes a succinct sentence says more than a whole page, especially in a business related memo.

I learned both of these lessons when I was in Boot Camp in the Navy. We had a short, designated time to write home, and almost invariably I mispelled words, left words out, did not punctuate, wrote two to three pages of mindless drivel, you name it, I did it. Up to his dying day my poor dad believed his son to be an idiot!