Planning

Start by thinking about the outcomes you want your text to achieve. The more specific you can be, the better the writing will flow.  For example, you might want your readers to :

• attend a meeting
• complete a form
• approve some spending
• understand a product or service.

Also think about the wider operational outcomes a document may help with. As an organisation, you might want to:

• reduce customer calls
• increase revenue
• improve services
• reduce risks.

Where you can, think about ways of measuring these outcomes to evaluate your text. Doing so will help you to choose the right communication strategy. It will also make the writing process more efficient and effective.

Once you are clear about your outcomes, consider who will be reading the text. Ask yourself:

• Who are my readers?
• What will they want from the text?
• What do I want them to do in response?

You may have a range of readers, each with different interests and needs. Think about what you want each type of reader to do and what they will need from the text to do that. This may mean giving some readers priority over others or even producing more than 1 document.

There is a handy formula to use.

This communication will succeed if:

who?

does

what?

If you can answer those questions clearly, you will be well placed to choose the best approach for your communication.

The next step before writing is to consider what type of document you are writing, and whether it falls into a standard category or genre. 

Analytical documents usually assess a problem and seek to persuade someone or to gain approval for a decision. These include:

• briefs and submissions
• reports
• business cases
• proposals
• letters.

Informational documents usually set out practical information about doing something rather than seek endorsement of a decision. These include:

• policies and procedures
• web pages
• fact sheets
• newsletters.

Of course, all of these documents will likely have a mixture of informational and analytical content, but their purpose will generally lean toward one or the other.

As a result, there are standard conventions for particular genres that you can use. Check whether your organisation has a template that sets out its standard for each genre. It will save you a lot of time if you use that rather than developing your document from scratch.

Finally, consider the best way to send your text to your audience. Where and how will they want to read the text?

In the pre-digital age, this was much simpler: we printed documents on paper and delivered them in hard copy to readers, either in person or through the post.

Today, you can consider a wider range of channels, such as:

• hard copies
• emails
• social media
• websites
• videos or podcasts.

Depending on your intended outcomes and your readers, you may use a mix of these channels. Deciding on this in advance will help you to better manage your writing time.