Know Your Purpose Before You Start.
If we don’t change our direction, we’re likely to end up where we’re headed.
As the new year begins, it is time to revisit what is perhaps the most important of all Writamins: Know your purpose before you start to write. Results rely directly on purpose: When you know what you want, you are more likely to get it.
Before you start to compose, ask yourself what purpose you intend to fulfill. Everything about your document, including its organization, word choice and format, flows from its purpose. If you do not have a clear purpose in mind before beginning to write, you are less likely to produce the effect you want.
Every document has one main purpose. When trying to clarify your purpose, ask yourself:
· Why am I writing this?
· What result or effect do I intend it to produce?
· What do I want my reader to do after reading this?
Writing is like going on a road trip; if you don’t have a destination in mind, you could waste a lot of energy rambling around.
The most common purposes of business documents are:
· Request
· Persuade
· Inform
To Request
Requests should be clear, detailed and include a deadline. A sentence such as, “Get it to me as soon as possible,” places responsibility for completion on the reader. “As soon as possible” might be six weeks or six months from now for your reader. If you want it by Friday at noon, say so. If you have stated your request in the body of your document, restate it at the end. People are most likely to remember the last thing they see.
To Persuade
Persuading is an indirect form of requesting. When you persuade, you are asking your reader to think or act differently. Rather than stating your request directly, you justify your request by using logical reasoning, or sell it by appealing to your reader's emotions.
Targeting your reader's “hot buttons” is an important part of successful persuasion. What topics or feelings are most important to your reader? If you choose your arguments carefully and deliver them in a form that your reader can easily understand, you are more likely to succeed in convincing him or her.
To Inform
Informing people simply transmits information from one person to another. It requires no action and is not inherently persuasive. For example, if you write, “We need to receive payment,” your reader could think, “That's interesting.” If you need the money by the first of the month, ask for it.
When people have a lot of information to convey, they often assume that their purpose is to inform. This may be a mistake. Automatically assuming that your purpose is to inform may lead you to include gobs of information that won’t help you fulfill your purpose. If you expect action, your purpose is to request or persuade, not to inform.
The few moments you take to clarify your purpose will pay off richly when you generate your intended result.
© Elizabeth Danziger 2009, 2010
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