Chapter 2 Reading Reflection

Writing, believe it or not, plays a critical role in business. In a world now filled with e-mails, memos, and other forms of written communication, writing can be the difference between successful and unsuccessful business careers. Because of this, I and the rest of the business world must enhance the ability to write clearly and effectively.

First, we must understand the purpose or purposes of the writing. This sounds obvious, but every writer needs to think about the end result before ever putting pen to paper (or in today's technological world, fingers to keyboard). Writers should ask themselves questions such as "What do I want the audience to know? To do? To feel?" With these end goals in mind, writers must then adjust for different audiences. For example, I would write this blog post much differently for an audience of college professors than I would for an audience of elementary school children. In order to affect an audience, writers should put themselves in the shoes of the audience and empathize with them. 

The next step is creating an outline. I was surprised to find that research shows that outlining improves writing. I guess there was a reason our English teachers growing up always told us to make an outline first! Outlining provides a way to organize information, which in turn creates an organized message. No matter which method is used, an effective outline should sequence main topics, categorize subtopics into their respective main topics, and create a free list of details for each subtopic. After creating the outline, the writer must then evaluate it. The whole purpose of an outline is to organize information. Therefore, the writer must verify that all necessary information is included and that it is in the correct place in the outline. 

Outlines determine what writers will say, but then they must determine how they will say it. Presentation can be just as important as the information being presented. The writer must first choose the form of communication- phone call, face-fo-face, e-mail, text message, etc. Then, he or she has to decide on a strategy to appeal to the audience, influencing and convincing them to do what the writer intends. Through these steps, business people can deliver powerful, organized messages that influence their audiences.