Understanding the Three-Step Writing Process

Like Home Depot founders Marcus and Blank, you'll face a variety of communication assignments in your career, both oral and written. Some of your tasks will be routine, needing little more than jotting down a few sentences on paper or keyboarding a brief e-mail message; others will be more complex, requiring reflection, research, and careful document preparation. The number of business messages is increasing daily, each one competing for your audience's attention. So your messages must be livelier, easier to read, more concise, and more interesting than ever before.

Of course, making your business messages interesting doesn't mean using the dramatic techniques of creative writing. Your purpose is not to dazzle your readers with your extensive knowledge or powerful vocabulary. Instead, your messages must be

•	Purposeful. Business messages provide information, solve a problem, or request the resources necessary to accomplish a goal. Every message you prepare will have a specific purpose.

•	Audience-centered. Business messages help audiences understand an issue, collaborate on accomplishing a goal, or take some action. So every message you prepare must consider the audience's point of view.

•	Concise. Business messages respect everyone's time by presenting information clearly and efficiently. Every message you prepare will be as short as it can be without detracting from the subject.

The goal of effective business writing is to express your ideas rather than to impress your audience. One of the best ways to do so is to follow a systematic writing process.

The specific actions you take to write business messages will vary with each situation, audience, and purpose. However, following a process of generalized steps will help you write more effective messages. As Figure 4–1 shows, this writing process may be viewed as comprising three simple steps: (1) planning, (2) writing, and (3) completing your business messages.

Active Figure 4–1	The Three-Step Writing Process

•

Planning. Think about the fundamentals of your message. Clarify your purpose in communicating, and analyze audience members so that you can tailor your message to their needs and expectations. Gather the information that will inform, persuade, or motivate your audience. Then adapt your message by selecting the channel and medium that both suit your needs and meet your audience's expectations. And finally, establish a good relationship with your audience. Planning business messages is the focus of this chapter.

•	Writing. Once you've planned your message, organize your ideas and begin composing your first draft. This is when you commit your thoughts to words, create sentences and paragraphs, and select illustrations and details to support your main idea. Writing business messages is discussed in Chapter 5.

•

Completing. Now that you have your first draft, step back to review the content and organization for overall style, structure, and readability. Revise and rewrite until your message comes across clearly and effectively; then edit your message for details such as grammar, punctuation, and format. Next produce your message, putting it into the form that your audience will receive. And finally, proof the final draft for typos, spelling errors, and other mechanical problems. Completing business messages is discussed in Chapter 6.

Because so many of today's business messages are composed under pressure and on a schedule that is anything but realistic, allocating your time among these three steps can be a challenge. In some cases, your audience may expect you to get your message out in record time—sometimes only minutes after speaking with a client or attending a meeting. But whether you have 30 minutes or two days, try to give yourself enough time to plan, write, and complete your message.

As a general rule, try using roughly half of your time for planning—for deciding on your purpose, getting to know your audience, and immersing yourself in your subject matter. Use less than a quarter of your time for writing your document. Then use more than a quarter of your time for completing the project (so that you don't shortchange important final steps such as revising and proofing).²

Home Depot's Marcus and Blank understand that there is no right or best way to write all business messages. As you work through the writing process presented in Chapters 4, 5, and 6, try not to view it as a list of how-to directives but as a way to understand the various tasks involved in effective business writing.³ The three-step process will help you avoid the risky "rush in and start writing" routine. Effective communicators complete all three steps, although they may not necessarily complete them in 1-2-3 order. Some jump back and forth from one step to another; some compose quickly and then revise; others revise as they go along. But for the sake of organization, we'll start with planning, the first step of the writing process.