I'll be honest, I've been appalled by the quality of writing that I've seen in business school. That's ok, because I know that most people haven't spent a lot of time learning to write well, and most people haven't had a reuqirement to either; but the ability to express oneself well can be a major differentiator in the job search and the quest for job advancement.

If you recognize that you're not a "great" writer, then you can spend your time becoming a "good" writer, which will be infinitely more useful for your career and for your sanity.

Some of the most common mistakes that I see include:

• Starting the next sentence before you finish the first one
• Lack of a clear message
• Trying to write complex, literary sentences (without succeeding)
• Using big or technical words (without knowing quite what they mean)
• Lists presented as paragraphs
• The nonspecific pronoun
• Trivial adjectives
• Saying I believe
• If your phrase starts with regarding then you probably don't need said phrase
• There are myriad reasons not to say a myriad of
• Don't bury the lead
• Try not to screw up your possessive nouns
• Don't form plurals incorrectly either
• General grammatical errors that make you look like you lack either facility with the English language, or attention to detail
• Common mistakes with foreign language loan words

To write better, try the below tips:

• One sentence, one topic
• Write in short, declarative sentences
• Short, simple words are your friend
• Write like you speak and use big or technical words only to express specific technical concepts
• Use bulleted lists, not paragraphs
• Outline? first, and, when you write, use headings