VISUAL COMMUNICATION

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You do not have to finish one activity to start another. Some writers plan a short section and

write it, plan the next short section and write it, and so on through the document. Evaluating what is

already written may cause a writer to do more planning or to change the original plan.

Most writers do not use all activities for all the documents they write. You’ll use more

activities when you write more complex or difficult documents about new subjects or to audiences

that are new to you.

For many workplace writers, pre-writing is not a warm-up activity to get ready to write the

“real” document. It’s really a series of activities designed to gather and organize information,

take notes, brainstorm with colleagues, and plan a document before writing a complete draft.

And for many people, these activities do not include outlining. Traditional outlining may lull

writers into a false sense of confidence about their material and organization, making it difficult

for them to revise their content and structure if they deviate from the outline developed early in

the process.

Using Your Time Effectively

To get the best results from the time you have, spend only one-third of your time actually

“writing.” Spend at least another one-third of your time analyzing the situation and your

audience, gathering information, and organizing what you have to say. Spend the final third

evaluating what you’ve said, revising the draft(s) to meet your purposes and the needs of the

audience and the organization, editing a late draft to remove any errors in grammar and

mechanics, and proofreading the final copy.

Do realize, however, that different writers, documents, and situations may need different time

divisions to produce quality communications, especially if documents are produced by teams.

Geographic distance will add even more time to the process.

Not all writing has to be completed in office settings. Some people work better outside, in coffee shops, or

from home.

Brainstorming, Planning, and Organizing Business Documents

Spend significant time planning and organizing before you begin to write. The better your ideas

are when you start, the fewer drafts you’ll need to produce a good document. Start by using the

analysis questions from Chapter 1 to identify purpose and audience. Use the strategies described

in Chapter 2 to analyze audience and identify benefits. Gather information you can use for your

document. Select the points you want to make—and the examples and data to support them.

Sometimes your content will be determined by the situation. Sometimes, even when it’s up to

you to think of information to include in a report, you’ll find it easy to think of ideas. If ideas

won’t come, try the following techniques:

Brainstorming. Think of all the ideas you can, without judging them. Consciously try to get at

least a dozen different ideas before you stop. Good brainstorming depends on generating many

ideas.

Freewriting. 2 Make yourself write, without stopping, for 10 minutes or so, even if you must write

“I will think of something soon.” At the end of 10 minutes, read what you’ve written, identify the

PRINTED BY: SHERIFAT EGBERONGBE . Printing is for personal, private use only. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted without publisher's prior permission. Violators will be prosecuted. Clustering .3 Write your topic in the middle of the page and circle it. Write down the ideas the topic

suggests, circling them, too. (The circles are designed to tap into the nonlinear half of your brain.)

When you’ve filled the page, look for patterns or repeated ideas. Use different colored pens to

group related ideas. Then use these ideas to develop your content.

Talking to your audiences. As research shows, talking to internal and external audiences helps

writers to involve readers in the planning process and to understand the social and political

relationships among readers. This preliminary work helps reduce the number of revisions needed

before documents are approved. 4

Overcoming Writer’s Block

These actions help overcome writer’s block:

1. Prepare for writing. Collect and arrange material. Talk to people; interact with some of your

audiences. The more you learn about the company, its culture, and its context, the easier it will be to write—and

the better your writing will be.

2. Practice writing regularly and in moderation. Try to write almost daily. Keep sessions to a moderate length;

an hour to an hour and a half is ideal for many people.

3. Talk positively to yourself: “I can do this.” “If I keep working, ideas will come.” “It doesn’t have to be perfect;

I can make it better later.”

4. Talk to other people about writing. Value the feedback you get from them. Talking to other people expands

your repertoire of strategies and helps you understand your writing community.

Thinking about the content, layout, or structure of your document can also give you ideas. For

long documents, write out the headings you’ll use. For short documents, jot down key

points—information to include, objections to answer, benefits to develop. For an oral

presentation, a meeting, or a document with lots of visuals, try creating a storyboard, with a

rectangle representing each page or unit. Draw a box with a visual for each main point. Below

the box, write a short caption or label.

Writing Good Business and Administrative Documents

After you have a collection of ideas, it is time to put them in a draft of your document. In Bird by

Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life , writer Anne Lamott call this first draft the “down

draft”: you just get your ideas down—without worrying about writing skills such as supporting

detail, organization, or mechanics. 5 Don’t even worry about completeness at this point.

PRINTED BY: SHERIFAT EGBERONGBE . Printing is for personal, private use only. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted without publisher's prior permission. Violators will be prosecuted.