IS THERE A BEST WAY TO APPROACH BUSINESS WRITING?
One well-known handbook for technical writers offers a very clear answer:
The best way to ensure that a writing task will be successful . . . is to divide the writing process into the following five steps:
■ Preparation
■ Research
■ Organization
■ Writing the draft
■ Revision
At first, these five steps must be consciously – even self-consciously – followed . . . With practice, the steps in each of these processes become nearly automatic.
(Brusaw et al., 1997, p. xiii) Under ‘preparation’, they suggest three main steps. First, you need to establish the purpose of the document. In other words, you need to decide what your readers should know or do after reading the document. We return to this later. Second, you need to ‘assess your reader’ to decide what they already know and what level of terminology or jargon will be acceptable. Finally, you need to establish the ‘scope of the writing project’. In other words, how much detail do you need to research or include to make sure that your document achieves its purpose?
What these authors call organization is the best sequence in which to present your ideas.
We deal with this later when we talk about structuring information. They talk about using the most appropriate ‘method of development’, which we shall also discuss later in this chapter.
Many texts on business communication recommend this approach – that writing is best achieved through a definite sequence of steps. Different writers use different labels for the
OBJECTIVES This chapter will:
■ review different approaches to writing and suggest that you need to decide which approach suits you best;
■ explain why organizing and structuring information is so important;
■ discuss how to establish clear objectives;
■ explain different methods and principles for structuring information, including the use of outliners and other relevant software, and show how these can be used to plan documents;
■ show how we can also use these principles to organize information at different levels, including how to construct paragraphs and link them into a well-organized text;
■ show how the structure of a document can and should support its objectives.
steps, but the ideas are very similar, as Table 7.1 shows. This table is based on texts that focus on word-processed or printed documents. As many organizations now publish many documents via the World Wide Web, we can also ask whether this staged approach can be applied to Web sites. Box 7.1 discusses this.
Should we always follow the suggested steps?
If the advice from business communicators is clear, is this advice supported by research evidence? Can we ensure success by following these steps?
As with most aspects of human communication, reality is more complex than some of the advice. In one of the most accessible and interesting reviews of what we know about the writing process, Mike Sharples concludes there are three ‘core activities’ in writing – planning, composing and revising – but the ‘flow of activity, however, is not just in one direction’ (Sharples, 1999, p. 72). His model is reproduced in Figure 7.1. It shows a flow of material in a clockwise direction – from notes and plans to draft to final copy – anda flow of ideas in the opposite direction. For example, reading a draft may generate an idea which alters the plan.
Sharples also reviews specific studies on the impact of the initial planning phase, as well as looking at some of the methods we cover in this chapter. He concludes that ‘time spent on planning is time well spent’ (p. 88) but that there are different ways to plan. Writers need to find the combination of methods that suit their situation rather than relying on a single ‘model approach’.
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Table 7.1 Suggested steps in business writing, as proposed by various authors Heller and Hindle (1998) Stanton (1996) Barker (1999) Decide what you want to say Write down your purpose Create a message Research the information Assemble the information
Group the information
Put the information into Organize the information logical sequence
Write your draft Produce a skeleton outline
Write the first draft Write a first draft Edit and revise Edit and write the final draft Edit and revise
EXERCISE
Consider the last piece of business or extended writing which you did. Did you follow these steps? If not, why not? Would the writing have been more successful if you had adopted a more organized approach?
We can extract practical conclusions from this brief review:
■ It is important to develop plans and objectives,
■ but this does not mean that you have to write in a rigid sequence of steps,
■ and you should review your initial plans and objectives as your writing develops,
■ so you need to find an approach to planning and organizing your writing which suits you.
Another research finding is that writers can have very different ways of approaching all three main components of the writing process, and we summarize some of the important differences in Box 7.2.
Planning is more than the text
Another important point which is not always emphasized is that planning should not just be about the words or the text – it should consider the whole of what we call ‘document
BOX 7.1 HOW SHOULD WE PLAN WEB SITES?
Many recent guides to Web site creation and design also advocate a staged approach. A typical example comes from Jennifer Fleming, who suggests a development cycle with the following phases:
1 Information gathering. This means collecting all the information you need to plan and implement the site, including the aims and target audience.
2 Strategy. You work out the scope of the project and decide what would best meet the user needs.
3 Prototyping. You create a rough plan for the site and decide how users will move about it.
4 Implementation. You then build the site.
5 Launch. This is the period just before and after the site goes live, where you need to check and test it very thoroughly.
6 Maintenance and growth. You need to keep the site up to date over time.
These stages are broadly similar to recommendations for written documents: planning, followed by drafting, followed by revising and editing. The last two stages are more specific to Web sites. However, Fleming is very quick to point out that although this process can be described as ‘tidy and controlled . . . and strictly linear’ as above, it is usually very different in practice, where mistakes and delays can disrupt progress (1998, pp. 75–104).
As we see with written documents, the design process is more flexible and dynamic than linear models suggest.
design’. This is summarized in Figure 7.2 – the planning triangle. This diagram suggests that there are threeinterlinked aspects which will create the finished document:
■ Style of writing, i.e. choice of words, jargon, the way you address the reader and so on. We shall cover this in Chapter 8.
■ Layout and design, i.e. the design of the page, and the use of any visual aids such as illustrations or diagrams and so on. We shall cover this in Chapter 9.
■ The way the information is structured, which is the focus of the rest of this chapter.
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REVISE
Contemplate New ideas
New ideas
Notes and plans to guide composing Draft to be
revised
New ideas Notes and plans
to be revised Annotate and edit
TEXT, NOTES or PLANS Interpret Specify
PLAN Contemplate
Generate NOTES and PLANS Interpret Specify
COMPOSE Contemplate
Generate TEXT
Interpret Specify
Figure 7.1 Sharples’s model of writing as creative design
BOX 7.2 ARE YOU A BRICKLAYER OR AN OIL PAINTER?
Several research studies have tried to investigate the main strategies used by writers.
Sharples (1999, pp. 114ff.) identifies two major studies which came up with very similar results. Table 7.2 highlights major differences between strategies.
Some writers seem to use one strategy almost exclusively; others adopt different strate- gies for different tasks. We can find examples of successful professional authors who use each of these strategies. The key to successful writing is being aware of what you need to produce rather than following a specific process. As Sharples concludes, ‘Being a writer is, above all, having control over how you write and trust in your ability to make progress’
(1999, p. 128).
One advantage of a clear plan is that the completed document should be easier to under- stand from the reader’s point of view.
WHY IS STRUCTURING INFORMATION SO IMPORTANT IN BUSINESS COMMUNICATION?
We know from decades of research into human perception, cognition and memory that our brain continuously anticipates, organizes and reorganizes the information it receives. A lot of the time we are not conscious of the amount or extent of this processing. As a result, we can be misled by the way information is presented. Scott Plous demonstrates this very convinc- ingly in his summary of research on human decision-making and problem-solving. For exam- ple, he quotes research which asked students to comment on film clips of road accidents.
Students who were asked how fast the cars were going when they ‘smashed’ estimated an aver- age speed which was 30 per cent higher than students who were asked about the speed when the cars ‘hit’. Students who were asked about ‘smashed’ cars were also likely to ‘remember’
a week later that the accident involved broken glass – something which was not on the film clips. In other words, these students had not just remembered – they had reconstructedan image of the accident based on the notion of a ‘smash’ and subconsciously exaggerated elements of what they had actually seen. Other research has shown the power of suggestions in particular formats of questions – for example, it makes a difference to people’s estimates if you ask ‘how longwas the movie’ rather than ‘how shortwas the movie’ (Plous, 1993, pp. 32ff. and 66ff.).
So our retention and understanding of messages depends on how they are presented.
We cannot easily absorb or remember information which is not clearly structured. For a simple example, read the following list of animals once and try to remember and repeat them before you read on:
■ chacma
■ cheetah
■ gorilla
■ impala
■ leopard
Table 7.2 Main strategies used by writers
‘Watercolourist’ ‘Architect’ ‘Bricklayer’ ‘Sketcher’ ‘Oil painter’
Tend to write Make detailed Build the text up, Produce Start by drafting
‘in one pass’ from plan sentence by rough plan rather than
mental plan sentence planning,
working from broad headings Tend to review Do a draft, Revise on screen Make frequent Review drafts on and revise on then print out. as they go revisions and paper
screen rather than Revise paper review/revise
print out drafts version and both on screen
then return to and from
computer paper draft
■ vervet
■ wildebeest
■ wolf
■ zebra
Most people find this list difficult to remember. It is organized – it is arranged in alpha- betical order – but this does not help you to structure the list in any meaningful way. It does not give you much help remembering the information, especially as some of the animals are not very widely known. A meaningful structure would make recall much easier.
Consider the following reorganization:
Recall of this classification is easier for two reasons:
■ A long list has been subdivided into three short lists.
■ There is some logic in the subdivision.
However, we must use sensible structures. If we examine these three sub-lists closely, the logic is not consistent. ‘Herbivores’ and ‘carnivores’ refer to eating habits while
‘primates’ refers to a zoological order. If we added ‘bear’ to the list it would not fit into any of the classifications as it is neither a herbivore, a carnivore nor a primate. To get a logically consistent classification we would have either one based on eating habits (herbivores, carnivores and omnivores) or one based on zoology (primate and non-primate).
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Choosing an appropriate writing style
Deciding on the layout and
document design
Structuring the document and organizing the information
Figure 7.2 Structuring information: the planning triangle. Whenever we write a business document, we need to plan three factors which influence each other:
■ how we are going to structure the document and organize the information;
■ how we are going to design the document and lay out the sections and pages;
■ what style of writing we should use to express our ideas to the intended audience.
Herbivores Carnivores Primates
impala cheetah chacma
wildebeest leopard gorilla
zebra wolf vervet
This illustrates the point that, while classification helps us to order our information, we need to use a system of classification which is consistent – it should use one criterion at a time. It is, of course, possible to have sub-classification. We can classify the animals into primates and non-primates and then again subdivide each group into herbivores, carnivores and omnivores.
If you were trying to help people remember a list of this sort, then you would also need to choose criteria to suit the subject matter and the needs of the audience. For example, an animal nutritionist would be more interested in a dietary classification than a zoological one.
The practical point here is that if we can present information which is clearly organized andorganized in a way which makes sense to the audience, then that audience will find the information easier to understand and remember.
DEFINING OBJECTIVES
Many discussions of objectives imply that you must have them ‘perfectly’ worked out before you do anything else – see Box 7.3 for a controversial example. We see objectives as more flexible, in line with the more fluid description of the writing process we gave earlier. There are two aspects of objectives we want to highlight in this chapter:
■ Phrasing your objectives in a particular way can help you decide what information to provide.
■ Clear objectives help you to improve the document by revising or redesigning it.
After we have discussed these we will look at one common business objective – to persuade – and show some of the complexities of translating this into writing.
BOX 7.3 WHO IS YOUR ‘MODEL COMMUNICATOR’?
One interesting category of management texts uses historical and sometimes fictional figures to act as role models for management behaviour. So we have had texts on leadership based on Moses, Genghis Khan and even Star Trek. Another recent example suggests that Jesus Christ provides a model of effective marketing and communications (Finan, 1998). The argument here is that communication was one of the major tools used by Jesus, and that his life illustrates the power of some basic principles:
■ clear and simple objectives;
■ careful planning for long-term success. One of Finan’s main points is that all Jesus’
reported actions contributed to his overall strategy;
■ using each and every opportunity to explain his message;
■ assembling a committed team to ‘spread the word’ and support him.
Phrasing objectives
Ros Jay gives an example of how useful it is to refine your objectives and make them more specific. Suppose you had to write a proposal which would convince a customer to ‘buy one of our swimming pools’ (Jay, 1995, pp. 14ff.). This could cover a range of different mod- els. Suppose we believe that the ‘deluxe’ model would suit the customer’s needs best. But what needs, are they? Jay suggests ‘quality’ and ‘ease of maintenance’ as needs, but of course we could be more specific. We could develop an objective which helps to structure the com- munication: for example, to demonstrate that the de luxe model would satisfy customer X by being well built and reliable, easy to maintain, safe for all the family members to use, and economical to run. We can use a simple layout to show how this objective is structured:
To demonstrate that the deluxe model would satisfy customer X by being:
1 well-built and reliable;
2 easy to maintain;
3 safe for all the family members to use; and 4 economical to run.
This layout demonstrates that this objective is structured in two parts:
■ the overall purpose; and
■ a list of the main criteria or arguments which support this purpose.
You can structure the main objective for an investigation or report in the same way. For example:
To show that replacing our current management information system with the Genesis system will:
1 improve our management decisions;
2 give operating staff more satisfying jobs; and 3 save on running costs.
Once again, this is an objective which then supplies the main structure of the argument.
You would expect this report to have three main sections: one about management deci- sions, one about staff jobs and one about running costs.
Clear objectives can lead to new (and better) documents
David Sless (1999) shows how a large company used several rounds of customer testing to refine the format of what had been a complex multi-page document – a traditional letter plus several forms. The single page which resulted satisfied all the necessary objectives:
■ telling the customer that their insurance policy would be cancelled if payment was not received by a certain date;
■ reminding the customer of the details of the policy in question; and
■ providing a payment slip which customers could use by mail or at a post office.
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The previous design put these objectives on separate pages. This created practical problems – if customers inadvertently separated the letter and the forms, they had no idea which policy was being chased up. Using a single sheet eliminated this problem. The layout of the new form also clearly highlighted the three sections by the use of shading behind the text:
Section A was the ‘letter’ explaining the timetable for cancellation, section B summarized the policy and section C was the payment slip.
WHEN THE OBJECTIVE IS TO PERSUADE
The study of persuasion goes back about two thousand five hundred years to the time when the Greek Sophists taught people to argue their cases in courts and in a public forum.
Aristotle (though not a Sophist) realized that there was more to persuasion than logical argu- ment: ‘We ought in fairness to fight our case with no help beyond the basic facts . . . other things affect the result considerably owing to the defects of our hearers.’ He recognized that there were three basic elements:
■ ethos– establishment of sender credibility, or believability;
■ logos– appeal to reason; and
■ pathos– appeal to emotions.
These three basic elements still underpin many modern theories of persuasion.
A
C
B
Sender credibility
Aristotle correctly reasoned that if people could impress an audience with their credibility, then what they said was likely to be accepted. In the business context, sender credibility operates at a number of levels. For example, a group within an organization can achieve credibility by reaching its targets, and individuals within the organization by living up to their promises. (‘If Juliet Smith says it will be ready tomorrow, you can rely on that.’) We are also inclined to believe in communication from presentable and helpful staff. Outward appearances can give an impression of credibility.
Rational argument
We cannot just rely on the strict rules of logic which the ancient Greeks used. In most business situations, you do not progress from irrefutable facts to logical conclusions; rather, you have a mass of evidence, often contradictory, which has to be weighed before a deci- sion is taken. You have to show that the weight of the evidence favours certain conclusions, and that these conclusions suggest certain actions.
So, persuasive argument in business writing usually consists of the following:
■ a clear presentation of facts and inferences;
■ an objective analysis of this information;
■ reasoned conclusions from the analysis;
■ a proposed course of action based on these conclusions.
Appeal to the emotions
While business communication is not generally emotive, it is important to realize that the audience will often react emotionally to a message. It is important to know those areas where an audience is influenced by strong emotion, particularly where political, religious and moral beliefs and values are concerned.
Audience analysis
As persuasive correspondence aims at changing the audience’s world-view in some way, it is important to have some idea of the audience’s present world-view and the factors that are likely to motivate the audience to adopt the desired view.
Format of correspondence
In persuasive correspondence it is most important that the correspondence should encourage the audience to read it as there is usually no compulsion to do so. The minimum require- ment for a persuasive letter is that it is clear and well set out.
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