Writing for Results

Identify the Purpose of your Writing 

Audience  

Analysing your audience will reduce nerves, provide focus and enhance clarity, ultimately making the task less daunting and more manageable. 

What do you know about your audience? 

Consider:  

Not allthe above will be relevant to every communication you make. 

Your audience will affect the way in which you write. For example, are you writing to your boss or responding to a complaint? An email to your boss is likely to be shorter and to the point.A response to a complaint will be longer and the tone much softer. 

Listening  

You can learn more about your audience by listening. Listening helps you to: 

Questioning  

Use questions to obtain relevant and specific information about your audience. Express yourself according to whom you are writing.  

Types of Questions  

ClosedAnswered with Yes or No 

OpenProvidethe opportunity for fuller responses  

Begin with why, how, who, when, where, what? 

Allow respondent to produce more information  

FunnelBegin with general questions on a situation, then narrow them down to reach a conclusion 

ProbingTo clarify and gather additional information  

LeadingDirect respondent in a particular direction 

Analyse your Audience 

To get your message across, you need to understand your audience. This is more challenging when writing, as the usual clues available during face-to-face communication are missing.  

You can build a profile of your audience by asking the following or similar questions:  

Knowing, or anticipating information about your audience will help you to connect with them.