Hello friends, this is not a regular post I write on my blog. This article covers the most frequent mistakes we software engineers make while communicating. Written and verbal are two forms of communication.
I did some mistakes in the past and I see many programmers doing the same.
Moreover everyone makes these mistakes, but my blog is mainly centered around programmer and technical people. That is why I am writing from programmers point of view.
Lets discuss these mistakes and how we can correct them.
Top communication mistakes as programmer
Writing long sentences
This is one of the learning I got after I started writing articles. The more longer sentences you will write, the more difficult it is to understand.
I have seen people writing long sentences and even loner paragraphs. It is always advisable to write short sentences and shorter paragraphs.
The more is the length of the paragraph,it becomes more difficult to read and stay connected. Human attention span is very less and if we write longer paragraphs, the reader may loose the interest pretty soon.
And the worst is we may loose our message.
Writing sentences in the passive voice makes the sentences long. Below is a good examples of the same.
I was hit by a ball.
or the active form for the same sentence would be below
A ball hit me.
Do you see any difference between above two sentences. Second one is shorter, easy to comprehend and understand.
If you use more of active voice in your writing, it becomes more clear and concise.
Wrong use of I and Me in Sentences
Many times I have seen software professionals and programmers wrongly using ‘I’ and ‘me’ in conversations.
It’s not just with programmers it’s there with general public as well. It’s said that less than 20 percent of general public gets it right.
Though people may say being a programmer and use of correct English is rarely interlinked.
But if you are meeting a person who is in those 20 percent, and mind you if he is in that percentage there are chances that he is highly successful. You don’t want to look like a moron.
Though an expert can find some grammatical mistakes in this article as well. But this is not about being expert, it’s very basic.
Which is correct out of these two:
Bob and me had a code review.
Bob and I had a code review.
If you think second one is right you are in 20%. The easy way to find correct use of I and me is to check if either of them can exist alone.
In case of first sentence, if I only use me. It would be like ‘me had a code review’.
And second sentence would be ‘I had a code review’. This sounds correct. The simple rule of getting I and Me right is to check their solo existence.
Let’s check this with one more sentence. Which one do you think is correct out of below two:
Add Bob and me to code review
Or
Add Bob and I to code review.
Which one is right? The simple rule would be to remove ‘Bob and’ and check the correctness of remaining sentence.
Wrong use to Then and Than
This one is a very subtle difference and its wrongly done in the written communication. Not using ‘Than’ and ‘Then’ correctly.
Many people don’t use these words correctly. Both are used to describe the quantity. But one is specific to time and other is specific to comparisons.
Then is used in context of time. The easy way to remember it is, that time ends with letter ‘e’ and ‘Then’ contains letter ‘e’. Below are some examples of the same.
I arrived earlier then Peter.
First Peter will check in his code then I will do mine.
‘Than’ is used for comparisons not specific to time. Below are some examples for the same.
I have greater understanding than you.
Incorrect use of tense with did and Didn’t
Never use past tense of the verb with did and didn’t. I can explain it with the help of some examples.
Wrong: I didn’t helped him.
Right: I didn’t help him.
Wrong: How did you came here?
Right: How did you come here?
I have seen many people doing this communication mistakes as programmer while speaking in meetings or other interactions.
Summary:
Do you want to make a strong impact than avoid the following communication mistakes as programmer:
- Write shorter paragraphs and even shorter sentences.
- Correct use of I and me in your sentences.
- Use Than and Then properly to convey the right message.
- Avoid tense mistakes when using Did and Didn’t.
Conclusion:
Life is journey and we shall never stop learning in this journey. There may be many other communication mistakes as programmer but these were some of the very subtle one.
If you think any other mistakes we make, please add in the comments section.