“How Can I Change My Writing So I’ll Sound More Confident?”

“Technically, there’s nothing wrong with your cover letters,” Shirley told Gia. “But you sound wishy-washy and unsure of yourself. It’s like you’re so, so sorry to bother those people, but could they please just think about maybe, possibly hiring you?”

Gia gulped. “It’s not that bad—is it?”

“Okay, I was exaggerating a little,” Shirley admitted. “But your letters do need some work. Like I said, everything is technically correct. There’s nothing wrong with the spelling, the grammar, the sentence structure or anything like that. But you need to let these people know who you are and that you’d be a great fit for their company. You need confidence!“

Although she recently earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration, Gia had never felt confident about her abilities. As a mediocre student in a family of high achievers, her parents praised her for being “good” and “quiet” and “respectful” rather than for her academic accomplishments. Also, their household was bilingual. While Gia’s siblings were fully fluent in English by the time they finished kindergarten, Gia had to work with a tutor for several years.

Gia knew her friend Shirley was right and that she needed to work on expressing herself more confidently to hiring managers. “But how?” Gia wanted to know. “How can I change my writing so I’ll sound more confident?”

Do you need more confidence?

Whether you’re writing a cover letter, a business email, a report, or even a social media post, a confident tone is a key to success. How can customers, colleagues, or prospective employers believe in your abilities (or in the product/service you are selling) if you sound as if you don’t believe in yourself?

Fortunately, if you find yourself in a situation like Gia’s, you can master the following techniques to enhance your writing and project confidence—no matter who your audience might be.

1. Unless you’ve done something wrong, don’t apologize.

Sometimes writing an apology is necessary (as we detailed in this article), but if you want to sound confident, avoid writing emails that sound like this:

I am so sorry to bother you, but I would appreciate it very much if you could find the time to review these sales reports.

There is no need to apologize for asking a colleague to do something that they’re supposed to be doing as part of their job. Of course, we want to sound polite when we communicate in a professional setting. But we can do that without apologizing.

Here is an alternate version of the above sentence:

When you have time, could you please review these sales reports?

2. Use clear, direct language.

In addition to being too apologetic, the “I’m so sorry to bother you…” sentence is also too wordy. Instead of dancing around your point or overloading sentences with unnecessary words, keep your message straightforward.

Will using a lot of complicated jargon make you sound more confident? Probably not. If you must use field-specific terms to get your point across, that’s fine. But most of the time, you’ll sound more sure of yourself if you use plain English.

3. Use an active voice.

Writing in an active voice automatically makes you sound stronger and more decisive. The active voice focuses on who is doing the action, whereas passive voice tends to sound vague and weak.

Let’s look at two example sentences:

The materials for the workshop were prepared by Jonathan Chang. (Passive voice)

Jonathan Chang prepared the materials for the workshop. (Active voice)

Notice how the second sentence feels more assertive and gets straight to the point.

4. Avoid filler words.

Like unnecessary apologies, “just,” “I think,” “maybe”, and other filler words weaken your message. When you remove these fillers, your writing becomes more decisive.

Compare these two sentences:

• I think we can ship the supplies tomorrow.
• We can ship the supplies tomorrow.

If you were a customer, which of these two sentences would make you feel more certain that your supplies will arrive on time?

5. Don’t hesitate to ask for what you want/need.

Are you sitting at your desk waiting for a colleague to send you some important files? You can ask them about it this way:

• Would it be possible for you to please send me the files sometime today?

Or you can ask them to send the files this way:

• Could you please send me the files today?

Making a direct (yet still polite) request shows confidence. It also shows respect for the other person’s time because they can read through it quickly.

6. Choose strong, powerful words.

Strong, action-oriented words such as “can,” “will,” and “ensure” project more confidence and certainty than weaker words such as “hope” or “try”.

Look at the two sentences below. Which one sounds stronger and more confident?

I hope to proofread the report tonight.

I will proofread the report tonight.

Bonus tip: Ask our TextRanch editors for help!

If you have written a business email, a cover letter, or a longer document and you want to be sure you are projecting confidence, our TextRanch editors will be happy to take a look at it and make any necessary changes. Our team members are located throughout the world, so we’re available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.