TABLE OF CONTENTS We live in an age of information overload . The ease of sending electronic documents has added to the problem. The paperless office may sound good in theory but in practice it means that people have to filter through a lot more written information to extract what they need.
It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking that anything written is about information giving. In reality, it's rarely just about information giving. In practice, it's about sending a message, which often incorporates information within it.
In this section, we look at:
the importance of knowing what you want to achieve by writing
how to keep it simple
some of the drawbacks of e-mail
writing a report.
Before you start writing, you need to ask yourself:
Who will be reading this?
What do I want to achieve?
It's essential to be clear of your purpose and be able to capture it as a clear objective. For example, to:
arrange a meeting
give the results of the enquiry
rectify the complaint.
Look through the last three e-mails you sent. What was the purpose of each one?
What was the purpose of the last three reports you have written?
What was the purpose of the last three letters you have written?
FEEDBACK
The longer the document, the easier it is to begin to drift away from achieving the purpose and added irrelevant information. You may find it useful to write your purpose on a note to refer...
