Coincidentally, Signal vs. Noise recently posted a related hiring tip: “If you are trying to decide between a few people to fill your position, always hire the better writer.”

If you want to improve your writing, you must try and read more as well (and read widely). But try and limit what you read on the computer (particularly blogs) - what you find online won’t match the breadth and quality of writing you’ll find at your local library (yes, really!).

I found the quality of my writing plummeted as I began to spend more time online. What’s more, my appreciation of good quality writing became severely blunted by reading reams of poorly-written blogs (by poorly-written, I refer to the overwhelming majority of blogs - including a large number of well-known and popular ones).

Every teacher tells their students that if they wish to improve their writing they should read often, read widely, and to practice their writing regularly - it’s hardly a revelatory observation, but it’s sound, simple advice that holds true today as it probably did a hundred years go.