A Strategy for Effective Writing

Introduction

Writing is an inevitable part of the business owner’s life – letters, web content, marketing materials, articles, blogs, press releases. Sometimes it seems we could spend all day writing.

But why is ‘good’ writing important?

• Our writing has the same impact on clients or potential clients as our office or shop does.
• Our professionalism and credibility are either enhanced or decreased by the quality of our writing.
• In today’s time-poor society, anything that is badly written will be quickly discarded: readers do not want to struggle to read another article, email, webpage.

One of the hardest concepts for writers to come to terms with is that writing is about your readers. Your task is to make it as easy as possible for your readers to read and understand your document.

Overview

Writing has three distinct stages: planning, writing and reviewing. It has been suggested that accomplished writers spend 50% of their time planning, 20% writing, and 40% reviewing. (Write to the Top: Writing for Corporate Success,D Dumaine, Random House, New York, 2004, p58)

To help you think about writing as a process that you can learn and practise, I’ve arranged this article into

• planning
• writing
•  reviewing.

But before we start, there a couple of important points that I want to state clearly.

• Default your software to Australian English. The only time to use any other is when you’re writing specifically for that audience.
• Make sure you have access to an Australian dictionary – Macquarie, Oxford, Collins.
• Never rely on your software’s spell check or grammar check. Spell check does not take context into account – it will accept Your marketing plan in your starting point. when you intended Your marketing plan is your starting point. Grammar check will alert you to the possibility of a problem, but its suggestions can be almost cryptic. If you don’t know how to remedy the sentence, ask someone for advice.

Planning

The planning process is broken down into:

• preparation
• organising

 

Prepare to write

Please answer these three questions before you do anything.

• What am I writing?
• Who is going to read this?
• What is my message?

I suggest you write down your answers so you can refer to them if you get stuck during any stage of the writing process.

Remember where these answers are – it’s very frustrating when you can’t find this valuable resource. Including these as part of your style sheet works extremely well..

What am I writing?

• Be clear about what type of document you’re about to write: email, web content, blog, article, letter, brochure, etc.

Each is different and has its particular attributes. A blog is similar to an article, but your blog host and article host will have different ‘rules’ you need to know and accommodate. An email is generally less formal than a letter.

Check out similar documents to the one you’re preparing to get more ideas about what works. Consider what you like to see when you read a document like that.

Why? Understanding what you’re writing will guide your decisions about how much content to include; the length of the document; how you’ll lay out your document; what illustrations to use, language style, use of special terms.

Who will read this document?

It’s much easier to write when you have a mental image of your reader. You’ll already know who your ideal client is: think about what they would like to see when they read something from you.

Remember that in some instances, someone other than your ideal reader may also need to read your work. A report may need to be presented to a reader’s supervisor to make a decision.

Why? Understanding who will read your document will influence your choice of language (formal or informal, casual); how you will handle technical and special terms; the best way to use tables, graphs, photos, illustrations; presentation.

What is my message?

• Make sure you know exactly what you want this document to say.

When you identify your message, it becomes the ‘destination’ for your readers: you’ll be able to take them there by the best route.

Remember that your aim is to get your readers to agree with your message and follow your call to action.

It may be that you need more than one message – you’ll have an overall message for your website or e-book, with a more specific message for each web page or chapter.

Why? Knowing exactly what you need to say will stop you from ‘waffling’: your words will take your readers on a journey directly to that message. And you’ll be able to express your message clearly.

 

Organise

You need to organise

• your time plan
• your ideas
• your document plan
• your style sheet
• the structure of your document.

 

Organise your time plan

Without a plan, it’s almost inevitable that you’ll end up rushing to finish on time, thus setting yourself up for an ordinary document.

You’ll need to allow time for

• writing            
• resting
• reviewing
• rewriting
• reviewing

So work back from your deadline to set yourself goals for completing each task.

Why? Without a time plan, some aspect of your writing will be compromised, and you risk ending up with a document that you’re not really happy with.

 

Organise your ideas

As you prepare to write, you’ll have a myriad of ideas floating around in your head. You need to decide which ones you’ll actually use, and in what order.

The only way to get those ideas ordered is to put them down on paper, so that your brain can see the ideas, find how they link, and what sort them into some sort of order.

You’re probably familiar with brainstorming and mind mapping – these are ideal for this process. Simply write down all your ideas, in any order, then find how they link. You may find more than one possibility – you’ll then need to decide which one you believe will work best.

Remember– don’t throw away your map – you may change your mind about your document’s structure. Keep it with your answers to the three basic questions and your style sheet.

How would you organise these ideas for an article about good nutrition for your family?

• principles of good nutrition       
• balancing meals                      
• lunchbox and snack ideas balance over the day / the week               
• food pyramid              
• how much is a serve for each age       
• importance of breakfast                       
• vitamin and mineral supplements

 

You can easily suggest a couple of plans, and these will probably be different from your colleague’s arrangements.

 

Organise your document plan

Use your mind map or brainstorming to decide which of your plans will work best. Then plan how the sub-points fit in with the main points.

If you’re writing web content, decide on the title and order of pages.

Why? You’ll have a guide to what point goes where: without a plan you risk compromising the logic and flow of your writing.

Organise your style sheet

A style sheet can be as simple or complex as you need. In essence, a style sheet is your reminder about the writing decisions you make. And it will provide consistency to your writing.

abbreviations	caption format	list format	hyphenated words
spelling of technical or special terms		positioning of illustrations, tables, graphs
paragraph and line spacing		date, time and currency formats
referencing style	measurement format	how to present numbe

Why? Without a style sheet, you risk inconsistency, and you’ll find yourself having to make the same decision more than once.

Remember where to find your style sheet – you’ll need to refer to it during the writing and reviewing stages. Recording your answers to the three basic questions on your style sheet is an excellent idea.

Organise the structure

If you’re using word processing software (rather than a content management system for a website, blog, article site), use the built-in styles to set up the headings, list styles and table of contents.

Use a level 1 heading for main points, level 2 (sub-headings) for supporting points, etc.

Set up your list style, and select the table of contents format.

Remember that you can modify the built-in styles to suit your colour, type face, font size, etc.

Why? If you decide to reorganise the structure, it’s so much easier to move a complete section – especially if you have linked cross-references, tables or figures, end notes, etc into the text.

 

Writing

Write

The enormous benefit of planning your document and setting up its structure with headings and sub-headings is that you can begin writing at any place in the document. You’re not constrained to starting at the beginning and working through to the end. (Remember the days of writing on paper?!)

Early in the writing process, you may find it useful to put key terms or thoughts into each section. At this stage, don’t try to write perfect sentences – this is about getting those ideas where they belong. Then you can turn them into sentences and paragraphs.

If you find the section you’re working on isn’t flowing easily, you can simply go onto another part and return after your brain has had time to come up with some suggestions about how to proceed.

Remember it’s almost impossible to write perfectly on the first attempt. You will need to re-craft sentences, paragraphs or whole sections.

Rest

Surprisingly, taking time away from your writing (especially when feeling stuck) can be very helpful. During this time, your brain comes up with solutions.

But you need to discipline yourself not to ‘worry’ at it. Concentrate on another task, or simply relax and take time out. Keep pencil and paper handy so that when that suggestion pops into your consciousness, you can record it.

Rewrite

Go back to your document and rewrite those passages that weren’t flowing easily.

This write – rest – rewrite process of parts of the document may need to be repeated a number of times, but it will all come together.

 

Reviewing

Review

This is absolutely essential.

While there are many ways to review, these are some of my favourites:

• Read out loud. Using both sight and sound highlights inconsistencies, awkward constructions, mis-spelling, long sentences.
• Read from a hard copy if you’ve been writing on screen. You see your document in a different ‘frame’; it can be easier to flick between pages.
• Ask a trusted colleague or friend to review.

What do you need to review?

• appropriateness to purpose, audience and message
• logical flow of the document
• spelling, grammar, punctuation
• consistency of heading and list formats, line and paragraph spacing
• consistency of type face and font size, and of colour
• consistency of all elements in your style sheet
• tables breaking across consecutive pages (insert a page break to avoid)

Your final review needs to be of the visual aspects and your document’s readability. You may recall that in the introduction to this article, I said that writing is for your readers. When your writing takes the three basic answers (purpose, audience, message) into consideration, you’ll achieve appropriately crafted content.

But how your words sit on the page or screen has as much impact on your readers and their ability to read your document easily. These hints should be helpful:

• Break the text into chunks, using headings, indents, paragraph spacing, illustrations (photo, table, graph, sketch, etc) if appropriate.
• Consider using 1.15 line spacing, rather than single spacing.
  • Use shorter rather than longer sentences (15 to 20 words is manageable).
  • Keep paragraphs to three or four sentences if possible.
  • Choose a familiar typeface and font size appropriate to your readers and the medium.
  • Avoid using all capitals, except for titles and major headings.
  • Use sentence case as much as possible (only an initial capital letter), including for other than major headings.
  • Take care how you use colour: too many different colours will detract from your content.
  • Check how coloured text appears on a coloured background.
  • Take care positioning illustrations to avoid confusion with wrapping.
  • Use text boxes or side-bars to highlight or reiterate important information.

 

Conclusion

Although many others have written so much more about the writing process, I hope that this brief outline will give you a strategy that will make your writing more enjoyable.

Remember

Plan 

• Prepare to write:
• What and why am I writing?
• Who are my readers?
• Organise: your time, document plan, style sheet, structure

 

Write

• write
• rest
• rewrite

 

Review

• content and visual