Writing for today's workplace: writing in the modern workplace can be a difficult and daunting task, but professionals can produce high-quality documents simply by applying a few proven prewriting, writing, and design techniques.

• Author: Baker, William H.
• Position: Management & Careers

Recently a professional acquaintance said to me, "Schools teach us how to write creative essays and novels, but they don't teach us how to write for the workplace." Unfortunately, this observation is true for many professionals who find themselves ill prepared to compose workplace documents such as reports, proposals, memos, and letters.

There is indeed a difference between creative writing, as taught in traditional English classes, and workplace writing, as practiced in business and government. This article highlights a number of prewriting, writing, and design techniques many people have found useful in creating workplace documents.

PREWRITING

Research consistently shows that writing generated from an outline is superior to writing without an outline. Unfortunately, many people avoid outlining because they think it takes too long or doesn't really serve them well. An outlining approach I often use overcomes both of these concerns: it is quick and it works very well. It starts with details and works upward to the category level, rather than starting from the categories and working down to the details.

To complete this type of bottom-up outline, draw two vertical lines down a page, dividing the page into three equal columns. In the first column, do a quick brain dump. Think of all the who, what, why, when, where, and how information you need to communicate to the audience, and write these as a vertical list on the page. Don't worry about sequence or wording issues at this point; just list the information as it enters your mind.

Next, examine the items in the first column, and create a few categories into which the first-column items could be placed. To keep the structure simple, try not to exceed about five categories. List the categories in the second column, and draw a line from each first-column item to its related second-column category.

In the third column, arrange the categories into some sort of meaningful sequence, such as chronological, most-to-least important, high to low, alphabetic, problem/solution, symptom/cause, or recommendation/justification. You now have an outline for the body of your document.

WRITING

Next comes the actual writing, the most time-consuming part of the process. Many people find an OABC framework helpful in this process. OABC stands for opening, agenda, body, and closing.

Opening. Write an appropriate opening that helps the audience connect with the content of the document. As a general rule, give the gist...