Why this matters more than ever

There is so much writing in our working lives. It’s not just documents, and emails anymore. It’s Slack and Teams. It’s comments on tickets and pull requests. In this post-pandemic world, so much of our communication is written first. Rarely are we around a desk talking anymore.

If you’re dyslexic, like me, that can be exhausting.

My default writing style is blunt, simple, quick. I don’t trust my spelling. I keep sentences short, long ones get tangled in my head.

In a fast moving thread, with people who don’t know me, blunt can look rude. Simple can look naive. A spelling mistake can make me feel exposed. That gap between, what I meant and how it lands, is where a lot of stress lives.

Dyslexia and communication at work

My dyslexia shows up in a few ways. Verbally, I am strong. I can explain ideas clearly. I can adjust my tone in real time. I can see confusion on someone’s face and fix it.

When writing, spelling mistakes creep in, even in common words. I’ll miss or skip small words. Structuring longer pieces is a struggle.

Written communication removes the feedback loop. I press send and hope. That hope isn’t always comfortable.

No shortcuts

AI hasn’t been about shortcuts, for me. It’s been about access. Here’s how I use it.

1. Proofreading without judgement

Early on, I would just say “improve this”. The results were polished. Impressive. However, the vocabulary got bigger, and the tone got softer. The edges were smoothed off. Mistakes were made.

Now, I paste my raw text in and ask:

  • Fix spelling and grammar.
  • Keep my tone.
  • Do not make it sound corporate.
  • Do not add fancy words.

2. Helping me structure my thoughts

Sometimes, my ideas are clear in my head, but messy on the page. So I write everything out as bullet points, no order, no flow, just raw thinking. And then I ask:

  • Group these into themes.
  • Suggest a simple structure.
  • Do not rewrite the content yet.

This is powerful, as structure is often the hardest part, not the thinking. Once I see the shape, I can fill-in the blanks with my own words. Or refine what I already wrote.

3. Checking tone before I hit send

Slack is where I feel this most. I might write something like:

“That approach will not work. We tried it last year.”

In my head, this is efficient, and helpful. However, I know how this can be read. So I will ask AI:

  • How could this be interpreted?
  • Suggest a version that is still direct but less abrupt.

Sometimes the answer is small. Something as simple as, one line of context:

“I might be missing something, but…”

Losing my voice

To start with, there were a few mishaps. It wasn’t that I’d literally lost my voice. But I had lost my voice, the writing wasn’t me. To be brutally honest, it was slop.

Colleagues noticed the shift. Not in a dramatic way. Just subtle comments like “that sounded very formal for you”.

That was enough. I had to reset. It reminded me, that consistency builds trust. People get used to your tone. I needed my voice, and my tone to come through in my writing.

Now I use a simple test:

  • Would I say this out loud?
  • Does this sound like how I speak in a meeting?
  • If someone read this back to me, would I recognise myself?

If the answer is no, it doesn’t go out. I need AI to support my voice, not replace it.

A leveler, not a crutch

I don’t see AI as doing the thinking for me. The ideas, are still mine. The decisions, are still mine. The accountability, is still mine.

What it does do, is help me express my ideas in a way that is clear, and fair to the reader. It narrows that gap, between what I mean, and what people read.

AI has been a leveller.

An accessibility tool.