Five Steps to

Successful
Writing
01 Preparation 03 Organization

02 Research 04 Writing

05 Revision
“The easiest and most efficient way to
write effectively is to do it
systematically.”
—Someone Famous
 The time required for each step varies with
different writing tasks.

In short, the five steps expand, contract, and at

times must be repeated to fit the complexity or
context of the writing task.
 01
Preparation
 Writing, like most professional tasks, requires
solid preparation. In fact, adequate
preparation is as important as writing a draft. In
preparation for writing, your goal is to accomplish
the following four major tasks:
 Establish your primary purpose.
 Assess your audience (or readers) and the
context.
 Determine the scope of your coverage.
 Select the appropriate medium.
 Establishing Your Purpose
To establish your primary purpose simply ask
yourself what you want your readers to
know, to believe, or to be able to do
after they have finished reading what you have
written. Be precise.
 Assessing Your Audience and Context

Be precise and ask key questions.

Who exactly is your reader? Do you have multiple
readers? Who needs to see or to use the document?
What are your readers’ needs in relation to your
subject? What are their attitudes about the subject?
(Skeptical? Supportive? Anxious? Bored?)
 Assessing Your Audience and Context
In addition to knowing the needs and interests of your
readers, learn as much as you can about the context.
Simply put, context is the environment or circumstances in
which writers produce documents and within which
readers interpret their meanings.

Context is the environment or circumstances in which

writers produce documents and within which readers
interpret their meanings.
 Determining the Scope
Determining your purpose and assessing your
readers and context will help you decide what to
include and what not to include in your writing.
Those decisions establish the scope of your
writing project. If you do not clearly define the
scope, you will spend needless hours on research
because you will not be sure what kind of
information you need or even how much.
 Selecting the Medium
With so many media and forms of
communication available, selecting the most
appropriate can be challenging. Which
electronic or paper medium is best, for
example, depends on a wide range of factors
related to your audience, your purpose, and
the context of the communication.
 Selecting the Medium
Medium for communicating :
 E-mail
 Fax
 Video conferencing
 Letters
 Memos
 Reports
 Telephone calls
 Face-to-face meetings
 Those factors include the ff:
● the audience’s preferences and expectations
● an individual’s personal work style
● how widely information needs to be
distributed
● what kind of record you need to keep
● the urgency of the communication
● the sensitivity or confidentiality required
● the technological resources available
● the organizational practices or regulations
 Selecting the Medium
As this partial list suggests, choosing the
best medium may involve personal
considerations, such as your own strengths as
a communicator. If you need to collaborate
with someone to solve a problem, for
example, you may find e-mail exchanges less
effective than a phone call or face-to-face
meeting.
 Selecting the Medium
Other considerations may depend more
on the purpose or context of the
communication. If you need precise
wording or a record of a complex or
sensitive message, for example, using a
written medium is often essential.
 Letters
Business letters with handwritten signatures are
often the most appropriate choice for formal
communications with professional associates or
customers outside an organization. Letters are often used
for job applications, for recommendations, and in other
official and social contexts. Letters printed on
organizational letterhead stationery communicate
formality, respect, and authority .
 Memos
Memos are appropriate for internal communication
among members of the same organization; they use a
standard header and are sent on paper or as attachments to
e-mails. Many organizations use e-mail rather than memos
for routine internal communications; however,
organizations may use memos printed on organizational
to communicate with
stationery when they need
the formality and authority of business letters.
 Memos

Memos can be used to instruct

employees,
announce policies, report results,
disseminate information, and delegate
responsibilities.
 E-mail
E-mail (or email) functions in the workplace as a
primary medium to communicate and share
electronic files with colleagues, clients, and
customers. Because e-mail recipients can easily forward
messages and attachments to others and because e-mail
messages are subject to legal disclosure, e-mail requires
writers to review their messages carefully before clicking
the “Send” button.
 Instant Messages
Instant messaging on a computer or cell phone may be
an efficient way to communicate in real time with
coworkers, suppliers, and customers—especially those at
sites without access to e-mail. Instant messaging often uses
online slang and such shortened spellings as “u” for you to
save screen space on a cell phone. Instant messaging is
obviously limited because recipients must be ready and
willing to participate in an online conversation.
 Telephone Calls
Telephone calls are best used for exchanges that
require substantial interaction and the ability
of participants to interpret each other’s tone
of voice. They are useful for discussing sensitive
issues and resolving misunderstandings ,
although they do not provide the visual cues possible
during face-to-face meetings.
 Telephone Calls
Cell (or mobile) phones are useful for
communicating away from an office, but users should
follow appropriate etiquette and organizational
policies, such as speaking in an appropriate tone and
switching to the vibrate mode during meetings.
 Telephone Calls
A teleconference, or conference call among
three or more participants, is a less expensive
alternative to face-to-face meetings requiring
travel. Such conference calls work best when the person
coordinating the call works from an agenda shared by all
the participants and directs the discussion as if chairing a
meeting.
 Telephone Calls
Participants can use the Web during conference calls to
share and view common documents. Conference
calls
in which decisions have been reached
should be followed with written
confirmation.
 Faxes
A fax is most useful when the information—a
drawing or signed contract, for example—must be
viewed in its original form. Faxes are also useful
when the recipient either does not have e-mail or
prefers faxed documents. Fax machines in offices can
be located in shared areas, so call the intended
recipient before you send confidential or sensitive
messages.
 Meetings
In-person meetings are most appropriate
for initial or early contacts with associates and
clients with whom you intend to develop an important, long-
term relationship or need to establish rapport. Meetings may
also be best brainstorming, negotiating,
for
interviewing someone on a complex topic,
solving a technical problem, or handling a
controversial issue.
 Videoconferences
Videoconferences are particularly useful for
meetings when travel is impractical. Unlike
telephone conference calls, videoconferences have
the advantage of allowing participants to see as
well as to hear one another. Videoconferences
work best with participants who are at ease in front
of the camera and when the facilities offer good
production quality.
 02
Research
The only way to be sure that you can write about a complex
subject is tothoroughly understand it. To do that,
you must conduct adequate research, whether that
means conducting an extensive investigation for a major
proposal—through interviewing, library and Internet
research, and careful note-taking—or simply checking a
company Web site and jotting down points before you send
an e-mail to a colleague.
 Sources of Information
 Your own knowledge and that of your
colleagues
 The knowledge of people outside your
workplace, gathered through interviewing for
information
Internet sources, including Web sites,
directories, archives, and discussion groups
 Sources of Information
Library resources, including databases and
indexes of articles as well as books and
reference works
Printed and electronic sources in the
workplace, such as various correspondence,
reports, and Web intranet documents
 03
Organization
 Methods of Development
An appropriate method of development is the writer’s
tool for keeping information under control
and the readers’ means of following the
writer’s presentation. As you analyze the
information you have gathered, choose the method that best
subject, your readers’ needs, and
suits your
your purpose.
 Methods of Development
Sequential
Chronological
Cause and Effect
 Outlining
 breaks large or complex subjects into manageable parts.
 enables you to emphasize key points by placing them in
the positions of greatest importance.

A well-developed outline ensures that your document

will be complete and logically organized ,
allowing you to focus exclusively on writing when you
begin the rough draft.
 04
Writing
 Expand your outline into paragraphs, without
worrying about grammar, refinements of
language usage, or punctuation. Writing and
revising are different activities ; refinements
come with revision.
 1. Write a Draft
 Concentrate entirely on converting your outline
into sentences and paragraphs. Do not worry
about a good opening. Just start. Do not be
concerned in the rough draft about exact word
choice unless it comes quickly and easily—
concentrate instead on ideas.
 2. Write an Introduction
 Consider writing an introduction last
because then you will know more precisely
what is in the body of the draft. Your opening
should announce the subject and give readers
essential background information, such as the
document’s primary purpose.
 3. Write a Conclusion
 Tie the main ideas together and emphatically
make a final significant point.
 The final point may be to recommend a
course of action, make a prediction or a
judgment, or merely summarize your
main points—the way you conclude depends
on the purpose of your writing and your
readers’ needs.
 05
Revision
 “The clearer finished writing seems to
the reader, the more effort the writer has
likely put into its revision.”
—Someone Famous
 During revision, be eager to find and correct
faults and be honest. Be hard on yourself for
the benefit of your readers. Read and
evaluate the draft as if you were a reader seeing it
for the first time.
 Check your draft for accuracy,
completeness, and effectiveness in
achieving your purpose and meeting your readers’
needs and expectations. Trim extraneous
information: Your writing should give readers
exactly what they need, but it should not burden
them with unnecessary information or sidetrack
them into loosely related subjects.
 Do not try to revise for everything at
once. Read your rough draft several times, each time
looking for and correcting a different set of problems or
errors. Concentrate first on larger issues, such as unity
and coherence; save mechanical corrections, like
spelling and punctuation, for later proofreading.

Finally, for important documents, consider having

others review your writing and make suggestions for
improvement.