Writing Compelling Documents
Do you find that you have ideas of what to write and you know your subject, but it’s difficult to know how to put that down in writing?
Producing an effective and powerful piece of written work involves thinking about some essential issues, such as:
- what is the purpose of the document and what are you hoping to gain from producing it?
- who are you expecting to read the document and what messages will matter to them?
- what are the most important issues to present and in what order should you show them?
- in what style should you show the information – ie. written, graphical, etc?
- are you writing to present technical material or to gain support for a particular campaign?
- should the document be prepared in a formal style or will a more informal approach be better?
- can you find ways of using short sentences to deliver key messages succinctly?
- have you checked the spelling, grammar and sentence construction to ensure credibility?
- what layout and presentation format would be most appropriate for the particular document?