Communicating on Paper

The basics of business writing

Writing Serves 1 of 3 Basic Purposes:

• To Persuade
• To Inform
• Audience
• Purpose
• Occasion
• Significance
• Clarity
• Unity
• Economy
• Acceptable Usage 

Writing Involves Creative Thinking

• Preparation:  doing your homework, gathering data, thinking about the general nature of the problem.
• Incubation:  letting the problem simmer, moving on to other issues, permitting the subconscious to work.
• Illumination & Execution:  arriving at a solution, putting words on paper, putting the solution into action.
• Verification:  testing the solution to see if it works. 

Business Writing Should Consider Four Key Issues:

• Audience
•  Purpose
•  Message
•  Persona 

To Help Define Your Persona:

• Do your research.
• Show that you are aware of the other side(s) of the question.
• Don’t overstate your case.
• Don’t oversimplify
• Show confidence. 

As You Address Your Audience:

•  Don’t bore your readers
•  Don’t waste their time
•  Don’t confuse your readers.
•  Don’t intimidate your readers.
•  Don’t threaten your readers.
•  Don’t disappoint your readers.
•  Always assume your audience is intelligent but uninformed.
•  Be sure that you’re not writing for yourself.

As You Prepare Your Message:

•   Don’t muddy your message with multiple appeals.  Keep it simple.
•   Don’t confuse your audience with more than one central message.
•   Make all of your evidence support your one, primary contention. 

As You Prepare Your Message:

• Make all of your illustrations and examples relevant.
• Make sure you can express your idea in one thesis sentence and your principal arguments on one piece of paper
• Do all that you can to make it easy for your audience to “buy into” your message.