People jump to all kinds of conclusions about you when they read documents you have written. They decide, for instance, how smart, how creative, how well organized, how trustworthy, and how considerate you are. And once they have made up their minds, it is hard to get them to see you differently. Research in social psychology shows how sticky early impressions are. It takes serious work on the receiving end to undo them — work that your colleagues, customers, and partners may not have time (or feel motivated) to do.

In my editorial career, I’ve met hundreds of writers. Sometimes I can see that the person has more to offer than the prose would suggest, and the disconnect leads me to judge, uncharitably, that he or she has not tried hard to write well or does not know how.

All you can be is you, of course, and nobody is perfect. But if you want to be as impressive in writing as you are in person, may I suggest:

Give your audience the benefit of the doubt. Don’t waste everyone’s time explaining or, worse, repeating what your readers already know.

Help readers trust you by not being full of yourself. If you need to have this suggestion explained, ask someone whose opinion you value whether you seem full of yourself and take it from there.

Also help readers trust you by obsessing about your credibility. You know how to be credible in person: Be charming and forthright, tell the truth, and present solid evidence and logic. If obsessing doesn’t come naturally to you, delegate someone to do it for you, checking your facts, the clarity of the relationships between facts, your spelling and grammar, and your tone. Even if you are obsessive, you may want to find a colleague or friend you can rely on to be your first critical reader and help you be your best self in writing.

When you’ve finished drafting your document, set it aside for as long as you can. It’s a good idea to build a resting period into your timeline for a writing project. When you pick it up again, try to approach it as someone else — a skeptical reader coming to it fresh. How do you feel about what the document says, and how do you feel about the writer?

Now here are some specific things that I think cast a writer in an unflattering light:

Loading up documents with pairs or with sets of three. Supple thinkers avoid sentences like this: “The policies and practices of businesses and nonprofits can be expected to change over time and distance.” They see more varied numbers of possibilities, and their writing reflects that.

Inventing names or acronyms for things. When writers make up terms, they look pompous, not smart. (“We call this paradigm for developing talent internally ‘talent infrastructure optimization,’ or TIO.”)

Using scare quotes. People seem sniffy when they put normal, talky language inside quotation marks. (“Managers who find themselves ‘behind the eight ball’ may need to be more proactive.”) Either use talky language straightforwardly or find another way to say what you mean.

Changing the order in which things are presented. It’s confusing to read a document that refers to A, B, and C; discusses them more fully in the order of A, C, and B; and then reminds readers of the discussion by mentioning C, A, and B. The writer comes across as poorly organized and inconsiderate of readers’ time.

Using nonparallel bullet points. Let’s say three of four are complete sentences and one is only a phrase. That’s sloppy. You’re allowed to draft things like that — we’re all sloppy on first pass. But you, the writer, are supposed to notice your own inconsistencies and correct them.

Repeating words with no good reason. Writers seem inattentive when they have a lot of empty echoes in their documents. (“It is important to prepare important documents carefully.”) Repetition can add emphasis, but only if it is used with care.

Teeing up lists or paragraphs inaccurately. Writers further seem inattentive when they lead into a series of bullet points or a new section by promising something different from what they deliver.

Writing well is a learned skill; it isn’t the same as being a considerate, interesting, admirable person. But if you do your best to be considerate and interesting and admirable — or whatever else particularly matters to you — no doubt you will have an advantage in the writing department over the thoughtless, the dull, and the contemptible.