Susan de la Vergne

Ever read a project plan, proposal, report or even an email that made no impression on you whatsoever? That left you saying, “Yeah, and …?” Ever wonder if what you write leaves people who read it asking the same thing?

Here’s why that happens: The writer has no idea what he (or she) wants the reader to remember. He just starts writing, getting it all out there, whatever he can think of and, when he runs out of things to say, hits SEND.

If that seems like an expeditious approach to you, you probably haven’t considered the consequences. For example, you want action on what you’ve written, but you get none because your readers were left wondering what, if anything, to remember and act on. Or you do get some action, but it’s not what you wanted to have happen because your written material was misunderstood. Or people reply to what you’ve written with questions you now get to spend time answering.

Organize what you have to say so that you know the few key points you really want to leave them with. Start with those. Support key points with details (facts, observations, background, references). Imagine arranging your material with an important idea on top, then cascading downward to ideas that are less and less important for your reader to remember.

Let’s say you were going to announce a process change for your department. There are lots of things you could think of to say about the change:

- Why it’s needed
- Why the old way was bad
- How much time or money can be saved by doing it the new way
- When the process takes effect
- What the new process is
- How hopeful you are that people will be enthusiastic about the new process.

It’s unlikely everyone who reads your new process description will remember everything you have to say about it. In fact, it’s almost guaranteed they’ll forget something. So decide what it is they must remember, what’s most important, next most important, next most important and so on, and organize your writing that way. Assume they’ll stop reading somewhere, or at least that they’ll stop remembering.

Here’s how I’d do it:

 

In other words, assume you have always have a shorter runway than your full message needs to get off the ground. Decide what you're going to offload, and arrange accordingly.