The only business writing book you’ll ever need - Laura Brown, Rich Karlgaard 2019

Step 2: Write for your reader
The seven steps

“There are different kinds of writing for different audiences and different purposes—too often people forget the real audience and just write generically, as if there were no reader there.”

—SURVEY RESPONDENT

Understanding and articulating what you want is only half of the communication formula. The other half, of course, is your reader. If your ask is clear, your reader should understand what you want him to do. Now it’s time to work on convincing him to do it. To do that, you have to write for your reader.

It’s surprising how easy it is to forget about your reader. If you’re just firing off a short e-mail, your reader is probably at the top of your mind—e-mail is a lot like conversation that way. But the longer and more complex your document gets, the more likely you are to lose sight of your reader. You’re managing a lot of content, you’re probably in a rush, and it’s easy to get sucked into saying what you want to say instead of what the reader needs to hear, or trying to present comprehensive information, or presenting information just because you have it. Especially if you’ve been involved in researching or otherwise obtaining the information, the impulse is often to include more than your reader really needs.

Whether you’re planning a document or editing a draft, it’s crucial for you to look at it from your reader’s point of view. Each reader has a unique point of view, and the better you understand that point of view, the more successful your communication will be. There are three factors you need to consider if you want to understand your reader’s point of view:

Relationship. What’s your relationship with your reader? Is your reader your boss, your client, your subordinate? Does your reader have to do as you ask, or do you have to convince him?

Information. How much information does your reader have about the topic you’re writing about? How much do you need to supply? How much information does your reader need to take the action you’d like her to take?

Attitude. What is your reader likely to think about your message? Will he be enthusiastic, cautious, hostile, indifferent? What expectations will he have? What’s in it for him?

These three factors are often intertwined, but thinking about them separately can help you understand the impact of each one. Let’s look at some examples of how each of these factors might affect the way you write.

Relationship

Your relationship with your reader will shape the content you provide in your message and the way you provide it. Let’s look at an example.

Mathias works for an IT consulting firm and is becoming worried that his client is withholding information from him. He’s writing to his boss, Cherie, and to his client contact, Rich, to try to solve the problem.

Hi Cherie,

I’m running up against a problem with the sales group, particularly Rich. I think he’s withholding information about some transactions. I suspect the margin on some of their complex deals was not as good as it should have been. Oversight has been poor, so they’ve been able to keep this under wraps. We can’t complete the analysis unless we have complete information, and any recommendations we make will be skewed if we have bad data. I’ll follow up with Rich and keep you posted.

Mathias

And here Mathias raises the same issue with his client contact, Rich:

Hi Rich,

I was reviewing the data last night, and I’m having trouble tracking down a couple of deals. We want to look at all the transactions in aggregate, so I’m not worried about focusing on the details of any single transaction, but we do need to have data on all of them. Can you help me find the info on the Morton and Julu deals? Happy to jump on the phone if that would help.

Thanks,

Mathias

Mathias has to walk a fine line here and address the needs of these two different readers. With his boss, Cherie, he can be blunt about what he suspects: that someone at the client is hiding data to protect himself. He also has to let her know what’s at risk from her point of view: that incomplete data can affect the results of their analysis and cause them to deliver inferior recommendations. With the client contact, Rich, Mathias has to raise the issue of the missing data in a nonthreatening way in order to get cooperation—he can’t force Rich to hand over the information. Mathias tells Rich that they are looking at the data in aggregate rather than studying the details of individual deals, which should reassure Rich that they will not be focusing on any mistakes he might have made.

There’s no guarantee that Rich will cooperate, and there’s no way to reassure Rich that he won’t be held to account for any problems with his deals, but Mathias has done his best to anticipate Rich’s concerns and allay them.

Information

Different readers need different kinds of information. Let’s look at a couple of examples.

José works for Avalantra, a pharmaceutical company that’s developed a new extended-release formulation of the popular medication skeezazine, Skeezixx XR. His boss has asked him to draft scripts for two animated videos to be used on the company’s website: one for patients, which will be placed on the home page, and another for doctors, which will appear on a special password-protected page for providers on the site.

José knows that these two audiences both need to be introduced to the new medication but that they’re going to require slightly different information because they have different needs and points of view. He tackles the version for doctors first:

New Skeezixx XR offers your skeezazine patients more options, with a $0 co-pay and a streamlined prescribing process. Skeezixx XR is the only 100% extended-release bead formulation of skeezazine. Skeezixx XR’s unique formulation delivers smooth skeezazine levels over a 24-hour period with the convenience of once-daily dosing. And Skeezixx XR is available in a broader range of dosage options than any other brand, with five available formulations—25 mg, 50 mg, 100 mg, 150 mg, and 200 mg.

The Skeezixx XR Quick Start Program is designed to ensure that your patients have access to affordable Avalantra medications. The program can quickly identify patients eligible for a $0 co-pay offer. This offer is available automatically at pharmacies nationwide through an e-voucher. Our agents can help patients locate pharmacies where the e-voucher is available.

It’s never been so simple to prescribe Skeezixx XR.

Now the version for patients:

Getting the Skeezixx XR you need has never been easier. The Skeezixx XR Quick Start Program is designed to ensure that you have access to affordable Avalantra medications. You may be eligible for a $0 co-pay offer, and if your insurance requires prior authorization, we can provide free products to help you get started immediately.

In addition, we offer personal assistance that works with your insurance from start to finish to gain prior authorization. Our Pharmacy Services team can also fill your first prescription and send it directly to your home.

Finally, we offer patient assistance to qualified patients. Patients whose insurance denies coverage or who are paying cash may be able to get Skeezixx XR for an affordable discounted price.

It’s never been so simple to get the skeezazine formulation you need. Talk to your doctor about Skeezixx XR!

You can see that these different versions reflect the needs and interests of their respective audiences. Patients don’t need the detailed information about available dosages or all the ins and outs of the prescribing options that are essential for doctors. Patients do need to know that Avalantra is going to make the medication accessible to them.

Now let’s look at a more day-to-day example of providing the right information for different audiences.

Darlene’s small company is finally getting around to digitizing all its customer records, and she’s decided to have her current staff do data entry from the paper files, supported by a couple of temps. Here Darlene writes to the staff members who will be working on the project:

Hi all,

Thanks so much for stepping up to get the legacy files digitized. It will be great to have everything in one place.

We’ll be starting on Monday, with the objective of finishing by Friday the 23rd. Xiomara will assign you the files to work on.

You should use the regular customer system with your regular login. Please follow these procedures:

1.Before you enter anything, check to ensure that there is not an existing record for the customer. If you find significant discrepancies between the paper files and the existing records, please ask Xiomara or me.

2.Please enter the following fields from the paper files:

Name

Address

Phone

Contact person

Dates served. If you are not sure about the close date, leave that field blank.

Rep(s) who served the customer

If you have any questions at all, please ask Xiomara or me. I mean this. Don’t guess when you have questions. The whole point of this is to clean up our records. It’s worth taking a little extra time to figure out how to do it right.

Thank you again! I really appreciate your willingness to work on this project.

Best,

Darlene

Darlene also needs to orient the temps who will be helping the staff with the data entry project:

Hi,

Welcome to the team, and thank you for signing on to work on this project. As I’m sure you know, we’re working to digitize all our customer records. You’ll be working alongside our regular employees to get these records entered into our database.

We’ll be starting on Monday, with the objective of finishing by Friday the 23rd.

Before we get into the details of the data entry, some information about the system.

You should have received your login credentials in the introductory e-mail. If you did not, please let me know immediately. If you forget your login, please notify me.

The system will log you out after ten minutes of inactivity. However, I would ask that you not walk away from the screen without logging out. If you need to step away for any reason, please log out and log back in when you return.

The system autosaves, but please make it a habit to hit Save (in the upper right of the screen) after each entry.

Xiomara Maldonado will assign you the files to work on.

Please follow these procedures:

1.Before you enter anything, check to ensure that there is not an existing record for the customer. If you find significant discrepancies between the paper files and existing records—variations on company names, different addresses, etc.—please ask Xiomara or me.

2.Please enter the following fields from the paper files:

Name

Address

Phone

Contact person

Dates served. If you are not sure about the close date, leave that field blank.

Rep(s) who served the customer

If you have any questions at all, please ask Xiomara or me. Please do not guess when you have questions. We would rather have you ask than guess.

Thank you again! I really appreciate your willingness to work on this project.

Best,

Darlene

Darlene has used the message to her staff as the basis for this message to the temps, and she’s thought carefully about what additional information the temps might need. She’s added some context for the project and some information about how the database system works. She’s also rewritten point 1 so that it’s clearer to a reader who’s not part of the team. And she’s rewritten the section about asking rather than guessing for the audience of temps. In taking the time to customize the message for the temps, she’s prevented a lot of confusion and probably a lot of errors.

We’ll take another look at choosing the right content for your message in Step 5, Fill in missing content; delete extraneous content (here).

How Writing a Business Plan Can Make You a Better Business Writer

Robert C. Daugherty

Today’s hottest companies—from Amazon to Apple to Google—have at least one thing in common: they all started with a business plan. A business plan is a document written for potential investors that outlines objectives and strategies; it is intended to convince investors to put up cash for the new enterprise. The stakes are very high: you must address your reader’s concerns, or you won’t get the funding you need to start your business.

To write a successful business plan, you have to provide persuasive answers to three sets of questions. First are the people questions: Why are you the person to launch and run this business? Are you known in the market? Can you attract the talent needed for success? Second are the opportunity questions: Is the market for your product or service large and growing? Is there a good fit between the product and the market? And third are the environment questions: What is the context in which the venture is being launched? Are there competitors entering the market? How will you respond when the market changes (and it will)? Your answers to these questions can mean the difference between a successful, funded business and a lost opportunity. If you fail to answer them adequately, your reader will simply say thanks, but no thanks.

Imagine if you took the same kind of approach to your everyday business writing tasks, understanding that if you didn’t meet your readers’ expectations, you simply wouldn’t get what you were asking for. Imagine if you asked yourself questions like “What does my reader care about?” and “How can I supply what my reader needs?” and “How can I convince my reader?” every time you wrote an important message. Obviously, most situations at work don’t have such high stakes, but the practice of writing a business plan imposes a discipline that’s useful for all kinds of business writing. Focus on your everyday business writing with the same kind of attention and intensity entrepreneurs use in crafting a business plan, and you’ll increase your success rate with all your business communications.

Robert C. Daugherty is the executive dean of the Forbes School of Business and Technology.

Attitude

Sarah works for a small retailer whose website has expanded dramatically over the past few years. The website began as a supplement to the company’s print catalog years ago, and now it’s the primary sales channel. Sarah wants her boss, Mary, to provide some help for the team maintaining the website content.

Hi Mary,

We really need help with the website. We can’t keep up with the volume of changes to the product descriptions on the site. Initially it made sense to have the marketing assistant maintain these. But since we’ve expanded so much, I think it’s time to take another look.

Jamie is swamped. In addition, we have so many different product categories now that we don’t have a consistent template for them or a consistent voice. There’s information missing from product descriptions, and Jamie is having to deal with the phone inquiries that come in.

I think we should consider bringing in a contractor for the specific purpose of cleaning up all the product descriptions and posting new ones as we go forward. We could probably use a person full-time to take care of the site and the product descriptions, but as a first step we could bring in a contractor. Jamie and I could create a template and try to round up the missing content as the contractor identifies it.

Do you have time to talk about this next week?

Thanks,

Sarah

Sarah is understandably frustrated by the situation. It sounds like Jamie’s job has grown, and he needs some help. If you look at Sarah’s attitude in this draft, she’s focused almost exclusively on what she needs, and she hasn’t taken into account what Mary’s attitude might be.

What might Mary think about Sarah’s message? First, it’s going to cost her money to hire a contractor. Even more alarmingly to anyone who has to manage a budget, Sarah’s talking about hiring another full-time permanent employee. Sarah’s message leaves some important questions unanswered. Sarah says Jamie is swamped, but why? And if Sarah and Jamie have the time to create a template and find the new content, why can’t they handle updating the descriptions? If I were Mary, my first response would be “No.”

Sarah hasn’t thought about this likely response, because she hasn’t fully considered what Mary’s attitude toward the idea might be. She’s thought only of what she and her team need. Now let’s say she’s taken some time to consider her reader in addition to her ask, and she’s going to write for her reader.

Hi Mary,

Can we set aside some time next week to talk about managing the website? We’ve expanded so much that the job has outgrown the way we initially conceived it, and I think bringing in a part-time contractor might meet our needs without being too expensive.

We’re having the following problems:

Product descriptions on the site aren’t consistent, especially across categories.

These inconsistent product descriptions result in an inconsistent voice online, so we’re not really implementing the branding work we did last year.

There’s content missing in a lot of product descriptions, and Jamie is spending a lot of time fielding phone inquiries.

Inconsistent and incomplete product descriptions make for a poor online experience for customers.

Jamie is spending his time playing catch-up rather than advancing our marketing. He’s smart and has good ideas, and we didn’t hire him to do data entry or answer phones.

Here’s what I suggest:

You, Jamie, and I should work on a template for product descriptions that reflects the brand personality we came up with last year.

Once we have that, we could hire a part-time person on a contract basis to go through the site, pull the product descriptions into compliance with the new template, and flag any missing content.

Once we’ve cleaned things up, we can decide where to go from there.

I’ll follow up tomorrow to see if we can put something on the calendar.

Thanks!

Sarah

In this revised version, Sarah has thought about Mary’s potential response. What’s in it for Mary now? More than just more money going out the door. The current proposal creates an opportunity to implement the branding they’ve already invested in, a better experience online for customers, and the potential to use Jamie for what he was hired to do. Sarah has thought more about the situation and realized that they might not need the contractor forever, and they might not need another full-time person—but if they do, Mary will understand why.

Writing for a Group of Readers

Writing for your reader is straightforward when you have just one reader. It becomes more complicated when you’re writing for a group. In a situation like that, you have to assume that your readers might have different points of view and, perhaps, different needs. How do you strategize when you’re writing for a group of readers? To help focus your efforts, try asking yourself some questions: Which of your readers is the most senior? Who’s the decision-maker? Who’s going to be the hardest to convince? Who’s likely to object and why? Once you’ve done this analysis, you can anticipate readers’ objections.

But what if you’re writing for a group that includes people you don’t know, as often happens when you’re submitting a proposal? In that sort of situation, take a page from the marketers’ book and create personas—fictional readers who are typical of the kinds of people reading your writing. For instance, you might imagine a more senior manager than the one you’re submitting the proposal to. You might imagine a reader concerned about budget. You might picture a reader who has another solution in mind. Don’t let yourself become overwhelmed by thinking about all of these potential readers; rather, use your insights about them to make sure your writing addresses each of their needs, at least in a preliminary way. Don’t let them freak you out; let them help you. When you’re writing for a group, thinking about your potential readers can help you anticipate reasonable objections and make a stronger argument in the process.

How to Write for Your Reader

If you like to plan before you write, the following trick can help you craft your message to appeal to your reader. In Step 1, Get the ask clear, you did an exercise designed to help pinpoint your purpose in writing. Now take what you did there and expand it. As you plan your draft, try completing these two very useful sentences:

My purpose is to _______ so that my reader will _______.

My reader needs to understand _______ to be able to do that.

If you’re an editor rather than a planner and have a draft you’re revising, try reading your draft from your reader’s point of view. Ask yourself:

If I were [insert name of reader], I would think _______.

If I were [insert name of reader], I would want to know _______.

If I were [insert name of reader], I would react better if _______.

For both planners and editors, putting yourself in your reader’s shoes can help you anticipate objections and connect more successfully with your reader.

Writing for Global Teams

With the rise of virtual teaming, many of us are now frequently working with people from other countries and other cultures. And because those team members live in diverse places, our only interaction with them might be in writing. When you’re working with a global team, take some precautions to help promote understanding and prevent offense.

Here are a few tips that can keep global teams communicating smoothly:

Get everyone’s name right. You might find yourself on a team with people who have names that are unfamiliar to you. Take the time to learn how to spell and pronounce everyone’s name correctly. If you’re not sure, ask; people would rather be asked than have their names mangled.

Avoid using jargon. Even for people who know English very well, some business jargon—especially jargon based in ­metaphor—might not make much sense. Instead of writing, “let’s not boil the ocean,” write, “let’s not do more work than we need to do.” Instead of suggesting that the team start with “low-hanging fruit,” suggest they start with “problems that are easy to solve.” (Even when you’re writing for a domestic audience, it’s a good idea to keep expressions like this to a minimum.)

If someone writes something you don’t understand, take the time to clarify it. Don’t assume you know what it means—ask.

Tread carefully around saying no. Some cultures are uncomfortable with refusing requests and otherwise saying no. In some cultures, a direct refusal can cause people to lose face, so bad news is delivered indirectly. If your colleague seems to be communicating vaguely or not answering questions, they might be trying to say no without coming right out and saying it. Try rephrasing your question, summarizing what you think your colleague means, and being gently persistent to be sure you understand what the message really is.

Give everyone the benefit of the doubt. If someone’s tone sounds peculiar to you, you might just be reacting to a different cultural norm.

Always err on the side of courtesy. It’s better to be a bit more formal than usual than to risk hurting someone’s feelings.

Anticipate Objections

There’s a strategic element to most communication, even if the stakes don’t seem very high. Part of strategy is anticipating and preempting the moves of the other. If you’re writing to try to get something from someone—whether it’s a sale, funding for a project, or an agreement to an approach—it’s smart to think about how your reader is likely to respond and anticipate any objections they might raise.

Anticipating objections requires really understanding your reader, so that you can see the matter from her point of view. Is she in charge of the budget? What other demands is she facing? Why should she allocate money to your project rather than to others? What other demands is he dealing with besides your request? Will he have time to address your issue on top of everything else? How can you make your issue a priority for him, given his competing priorities? Is this a bad time for the organization to take risks? How can you convince your reader that the upside outweighs the potential downside? Anticipating and addressing objections in advance can help prevent the reader from rejecting your idea out of hand, and it can shorten any discussion or negotiation that might follow your initial communication.

The “You” Attitude

The “you” attitude is an approach to business communication developed by the late Kitty O. Locker, a professor of English at Ohio State University.^* Put simply, the “you” attitude in writing puts the focus on the reader rather than on the writer. It highlights the importance of the reader and calls out benefits to them. Implementing the “you” attitude in your writing often involves changing the subject of the sentence from “I” or “we” to “you”:

As you can see, sales writers have understood this approach for a long time, but you don’t have to be selling anything to make a bid for your reader’s attention in this way. The “you” attitude is useful in any situation where you want to harness your reader’s goodwill:

A shift in focus from “I” to “you” is an easy trick to make your writing more appealing and engage your reader.

Use Formatting to Guide Your Reader

Part of writing for your reader is doing your best to ensure that your message is easy to understand. In addition to selecting content carefully, you can make your message more accessible by using formatting that will help your reader absorb your message. Most people at work don’t really read text—they scan it. These three tricks can make text more easily scannable and highlight content that might be impor­tant to your reader:

Use short paragraphs. The eye tends to “bounce” off text set in long paragraphs. A series of paragraphs of a few sentences each will be much easier for your reader to scan.

Use bulleted lists. Whenever you have a list of items, consider formatting it as a bulleted list. The list might be single words, sentences, or questions. A word of caution: don’t try to force content into bulleted lists if the elements aren’t parallel or if they need fuller development than a simple list can provide. Some business writers have gone overboard with the bullets—if you use them, make sure they make sense.

Use strategic bolding. Strategic bolding highlights important words and draws the reader’s eye to them. If a passage has effective strategic bolding, the reader should be able to glance at it and get the gist of it, rather than reading it word for word. As with bullet points, be careful not to overdo it. If you bold too much of your text, the bolding becomes meaningless noise and can have the opposite of the intended effect.

A final word of caution: don’t go nuts with any of these formatting techniques. If your text is too full of bulleted lists, bolding, and italics, it’s going to look like a sales letter. You also risk organizing your writing around the formatting, rather than focusing on developing the content itself. Use formatting as a tool and let it serve you, rather than your serving it. When used skillfully, formatting can help you organize content and direct your reader’s eye to what’s really important.

SUMMARY: Write for Your Reader

As you think about how you can meet your reader’s needs and expectations, consider these variables:

Relationship: Who is my reader, and what is her relationship to me? Does she have to do what I ask?

Information: How much information does my reader have about my topic? How much background do I have to supply to help him understand? What kind of information will appeal to him?

Attitude: What is my reader’s likely attitude to what I’m saying? Will she be receptive or resistant? What information do I need to include to persuade her?

In the next step, we’ll look at the beginning of your document and explore how a strong and specific opening can pique your readers’ interest and motivate them to keep reading.