Learning Writing skills from Journalists

A huge turnout for the Presentation and Communication Skills (PCS) was not a surprise for anyone, given the popularity of Steve Carver. We, however, were curious to find out who the two new faces were in the class. Steve introduced to us Des Dearlove and Stuart Crainer as multi-faceted personalities actively involved in journalism, consultancy, ghost-writing, editorial coaching, etc. Des and Stuart work very closely with Cranfield and almost 50% of their work is published in the USA alone.
Incidentally, Des is one of the journalists we shall face later during the year in Term 2 as part of the ‘Crisis Management Session’ in PCS (and from the preliminary information we have received, it will be one of the most challenging moments in our Cranfield experience).
When the workshop began, my initial thoughts were: “I have spent 13 years in industry and written enough memos and reports. Do I really need to go through this?” I was also wondering whether any other colleague in my class felt similarly or not. After all, a Cranfield student has an average of 8 years work experience and writing is an integral part of everyone’s career.
The trouble with illusions is you only know you have them when they are broken. I am glad I didn’t mention my thoughts to anyone because Des and Stuart had some very interesting observations about writing skills. They shared the mantras as “12 habits of effective writers”. The surprising element was that their principles weren’t from rocket science books – these were basic, common sense concepts that are more often than not overlooked by many.
Overall, it was a good note to end the day. The more I reflect back on the notes I made, the more I realise the, as yet, unseen flaws in my writing. I also feel good to get such experience at Cranfield and wonder, “Do other schools of management provide such an opportunity to its students?” I really wonder…