THREE-STEP 1.

WRITING PROCESS
Three-Step Writing Process
1. Plan
2. Write
3. Complete

. Planning
Analyze the Situation
Define the reason or purpose for writing and develop an audience profile.
Gather Information
Determine the needs of the audience and gather the information required to satisfy those
needs.
Select the Right Delivery Vehicle
Determine the best medium (delivery vehicle) for communicating the message.
Organize the Information
Define the main communication idea and select a direct or an indirect approach. Outline the
communication content.

2. Write
Adapt to the Audience

Connect with your audience by being sensitive to their needs and using a “you” attitude.

Build a strong relationship with the audience by establishing credibility and projecting your
company’s brand image. Use a conversational tone, plain English, and an appropriate voice
to deliver the message.

Compose the Message

Choose strong words that create useful sentences and coherent paragraphs.

3. Complete
Revise the Message
Evaluate the content and review it for readability. If required, edit the content and rewrite it
for conciseness and clarity.
Produce the Message
Use useful design elements for a clean and professional layout.
Proofread the Message
Review the communication piece for errors in the layout. Check the spelling and mechanics
as well.
Distribute the Message
Deliver the message using the chosen communication vehicle. Make sure that all
documents and files successfully distributed are relevant to the communication item.

While writing may seem challenging at first, practicing often and implementing the three-
step writing process will help improve writing skills. The more a business professional writes
and uses the three-step process, the more automatic their writing becomes.

2. Gathering Information
“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus
character – that is the goal of true education” – Martin Luther King Jr.

Critical Thinking starts with gathering information. Most people skip this step and go right to the
decision making process which sends them down the wrong path right from the start. You already have
some information based on your own knowledge and experiences.Your past experiences can help you to
make decisions about current situations. However, in order to get the best outcome, it’s important that
you have all of the information related to the current situation. Gathering information is the most
important part of the critical thinking process. Getting all of the information you need to make a
decision will always lead to the best outcome.

Researching, or gathering information, can be stressful unless you have a process in place. There are so
many resources available it can be hard to know where to start. Here are five steps to follow to simplify
the process of gathering information:

1. Ask the right questions

2. Find information sources

3. Find the information you need from your sources

4. Apply your own knowledge and experiences

5. Consider many sources

Let’s take a closer look at what it means to gather information!

Ask the right questions. The amount of information available to you is endless. There is no shortage of
information. The problem is finding the right information, or information that relates to your situation
and will help you reach a conclusion. Look for answers to the simple questions first: Who, what, when,
where and why?

Once you have answers to these questions you can start asking questions to learn more details. Having
your questions outlined before you start searching for information will keep you from getting weighed
down by information that does not help you solve the problem.

Find information sources. Once you have outlined the questions that will lead you to the information
you need, the next step is to find the sources of information that will provide the answers. A good place
to start is the library. Use the library’s catalog system to search for titles that relate to your topic.
You can also find groups or organizations that specialize in the topic you’re researching. In the
workplace, there might be a department within your company that can serve as a helpful source of
information.

The Internet is another source of information. When using the Internet to find information, it’s
important to make sure that the sources you find are reliable and the information they share is true.

Find the information you need from your sources. Reference books and guides are great sources of
information; however, they usually have more information than you need in order to answer your
questions. It’s okay, and in most cases it’s best, if you don’t read the book from cover to cover, but
instead look for the information that answers the questions you outlined earlier. Here are three tips for
finding specific information without reading the entire book:

1. Look through the table of contents for your topic

2. Check the index for your topic

3. Search headings or chapter titles

Look through the table of contents for your topic. The table of contents is usually found on one of the
first pages of the book. The table of contents is a list of the names of chapters or sections in the book,
along with the page number where the chapter begins so you can easily turn to that page and find the
topic.

Check the index for your topic. Some reference books also have an index, which is found in the back of
the book. An index is more detailed than the table of contents and lists many topics, along with every
page number that has information about the topic.

Search headings or chapter titles. If your book doesn’t have a table of contents or an index, you can skim
through the book and look for headings or chapter titles that relate to your topic.

When searching for the information you need on the Internet, try searching by keywords, or the words
that relate to your topic. You will then be presented with a list of links to websites that have information
about the topic you searched. Click on the links that look the most useful and search for information
that answers your questions within each website.

Apply your own knowledge and experience. In addition to the information you research, you can make
use of the information you already know when gathering information. As you go through life, you learn
about different topics. Use this knowledge that you already have in order to solve a problem, make a
decision or come to a conclusion.

For example, let’s say you work at a sporting goods store and you need to gather information about a
specific piece of sporting equipment. You could think about any experience you’ve had with that sport
or a time that you may have learned about it. Maybe you played the sport in physical education class or
perhaps you watched a game on TV. These are all experiences that you can draw from to add to the
information you need to answer your questions.

Consider many sources. When gathering information, it’s important that you look at many different
sources. Although you might think that one resource or book has all the answers to your questions,
there might be a different source out there that has new or different information on your topic. For
 now, focus on gathering as much information from as many different reliable sources as you can. You
can sort out which information is the best later in the critical thinking process.

3.Organizing Your Message

The ability to organize messages effectively is a skill that helps readers and writers alike. Good
organization helps your readers in at least three ways:
■ It helps your audience understand your message. By making your main idea clear and
supporting it with logically presented evidence, you help audiences grasp the essential
elements of your message.
Good organization benefits your audiences by helping them understand and accept your message in less time.
Good organization helps you by reducing the time and creative energy needed to create effective messages.
To organize any message,
■Define your main idea
■Limit the scope
■Choose the direct or indirect approach
■Outline your information in a logical sequence
■It helps your audience accept your message. Careful organization also helps you select and
arrange your points in a diplomatic way that can soften the blow of unwelcome news or
persuade skeptical readers to see your point of view. In contrast, a poorly organized
message can trigger negative emotions that prevent people from seeing the value of what
you have to say.
■It saves your audience time. Good organization saves readers time because they don’t have to

wade through irrelevant information, seek out other sources to fill in missing information, or struggle
to follow your train of thought.
In addition to saving time and energy for your readers, good organization saves you time and
consumes less of your creative energy. Having a good organizational plan before you start writing
helps the words flow because you can focus on how you want to say something, rather than
struggling with what you want to say next. (In fact, whenever you struggle with “writer’s block,” step
back and think about the organization of your message. Chances are what you’re really facing is
a thinking block, not a writing block.) A clear plan also helps you avoid composing material you don’t
need, and it minimizes the time you have to spend revising your first draft.
Good organizational skills are also good for your career. When you develop a reputation as a
clear thinker who cares about your readers and listeners, people will be more inclined to pay
attention to what you have to say.
That said, what exactly is good organization? You can think of it as structuring messages in a
way that helps recipients get all the information they need while requiring the least amount of time
and energy for everyone involved. Good organization starts with a clear definition of your main idea.

   
Defining Your Main Idea
The topic of your message is the overall subject, and your main idea is a specific statement
about that topic. For example, if you believe that the current system of using paper
forms
for filing employee insurance claims is expensive and slow, you might craft a message
   
in
   
which the topic is employee insurance claims and the main idea is that a new web-based
   
claim-filing system would reduce costs for the company and reduce reimbursement delays
   
for employees.  

In longer documents and presentations, you may need to unify a mass of material with

a main idea that encompasses all the individual points you want to make. Sometimes you

won’t even be sure what your main idea is until you sort through the information. For tough
   
assignments like these, consider a variety of techniques to generate creative ideas:
   
■  Brainstorming. Working alone or with others, generate as many ideas and questions as
   
you can, without stopping to criticize or organize. After you capture all these pieces, look
     

 
for patterns and connections to help identify the main idea
 

     
and the groups of supporting ideas.
 
■  Journalistic approach. The journalistic approach asks who,
     

     
what, when, where, why, and how questions to distill major
■ Question-and-answer chain. Start with a key question the audience is likely to have, and work back
toward your message. In most cases, you’ll find that each answer generates new questions, until
you identify the information that needs to be in your message.
 Chapter 3: Planning Business Messages 67

■Storyteller’s tour. Some writers find it helpful to talk through a communication challenge before trying to
write. Record yourself as you describe what you intend to write. Then listen to the playback, identify ways
to tighten and clarify the message, and repeat the process until you distill the main idea down to a single,
concise message.
■Mind mapping. You can generate and organize ideas by using a graphic method called mind mapping.

Start with a main idea and then branch out to connect every other related idea that comes to mind. The
Real-Time Updates Learn More item on the previous page offers links to a variety of mind-mapping tools.
Limiting Your Scope
The scope of your message is the range of information you present, the overall length, and the level of
detail—all of which need to correspond to your main idea. The length of some business messages has a
preset limit, whether from a boss’s instructions, the technology you’re using, or a time frame such as
individual speaker slots during a seminar. However, even if you don’t have a preset length, limit your
scope to the minimum amount of information needed to convey your main idea (see Figure 3.7).
In addition to limiting the overall scope of your message, limit the number of major supporting points
to a half dozen or so—and if you can get your idea across with fewer points, all the better. Listing 20 or 30
supporting points might feel as though you’re being thorough, but your audience is likely to view such
detail as rambling and mind numbing. Instead, group your supporting points under major headings, such
as finance, customers, competitors, employees, or whatever is appropriate for your subject. Look for ways
to distill your supporting points so that you have a smaller number with greater impact.
Choosing Between Direct and Indirect Approaches
After you’ve defined your main idea and supporting points, you’re ready to decide on the sequence you
will use to present your information. You have two basic options:
■Direct approach. When you know your audience will be receptive to your message, use the direct
approach: Start with the main idea (such as a recommendation, conclusion, or request) and follow that
with your supporting evidence.
■Indirect approach. When your audience will be skeptical about or even resistant to your message, you

generally want to use the indirect approach: Start with the evidence first and build your case before
presenting the main idea. Note that taking the indirect approach does not mean avoiding tough issues or
talking around in circles. It simply means building up to your main idea in a logical or sensitive way.
To choose between these two alternatives, analyze your audience’s likely reaction to your purpose
and message, as shown in Figure 3.8. Bear in mind, however, that Figure 3.8 presents only general
guidelines; always consider the unique circumstances of each message and audience situation. The type
of message also influences the choice of the direct or indirect approach. In the coming chapters, you’ll get
specific advice on choosing the best approach for a variety of different communication challenges.
Outlining takes some time and effort, but it can often save you considerable time and effort in the composing and revising stages.
Outlining Your Content
After you have chosen the direct or indirect approach, the next task is to figure out the most logical and
effective way to present your major points and supporting details. Even if you’ve resisted creating outlines
in your school assignments over the years, get into the habit of creating outlines when you’re preparing
most business messages. You’ll save time, get better results, and do a better job of navigating through
complicated situations.
■ Start with the main idea. The main idea helps you establish the goals and general strategy of the
message, and it summarizes (1) what you want your audience members to do, think, or feel after
receiving the message and (2) why it makes sense for them to do so. Everything in your message
should either support the main idea or explain its implications. (Remember that if you choose the
indirect approach, the main idea will appear toward the end of your message, after you’ve presented
your major supporting points.)
■ State the major points. Support your main idea with the major points that clarify and explain your ideas in
more concrete terms. If your purpose is to inform and the material is factual, your major points may be
based on something physical or financial, for example—something you can visualize or measure, such as
activities to be performed, functional units, spatial or chronological relationships, or parts of a whole.
When you’re describing a process, the major points are usually steps in the process. When you’re
describing an object, the major points often correspond to the parts of the object. When you’re giving a
historical account, major points represent events in the chronological chain of events. If your purpose is to
persuade or to collaborate, select major points that develop a line of reasoning or a logical argument that
proves your central message and motivates your audience to act.
■ Provide examples and evidence. After you’ve defined the main idea and identified major supporting
points, you’re ready to back up those points with examples and evidence that help audience members
understand, accept, and
remember your message. Choose your examples and evidence carefully. You want to be compelling
and complete but also as concise as possible. One strong example or piece of evidence can be
more effective than three or four weaker items.