Part 5 (1/2)

* Suggest what you will be asking them to do.

Someone we know who was trained to write in the army says he learned: ”Put the bottom line on top.” It's a good rule to follow. To see why, just look critically at the e-mail messages you receive in the course of a day. How much time do you spend figuring out why each person wrote to you, if the message is of interest, and whether you should read, file, or delete it?

Wouldn't it be a more perfect (and efficient) world if you knew exactly what every message was about and what interest it held for you, after reading just the subject line and the first sentence or two?

Realistically, it's the same for every kind of writing, from letters selling insurance to reports to your boss, a note to the Purchasing Dept. and announcements of all kinds. If the first paragraph or so doesn't catch us, we stop reading. Suppose you receive the following memo about a training seminar.

Subject: Training seminar November 8.

I'm pleased to tell you that my department has been charged with planning and implementing a series of workshops to upgrade new managers' skills. The resources were provided by HR after an a.n.a.lysis of staff capabilities and company needs. Sessions will be offered every month for the rest of the year. On November 8...

So far, who cares? If you're having a busy day, will you be drawn to read further and find out what HR is congratulating itself for? Here's an alternative.

Subject: Nov. 8-Learn to be a great presenter.

You're invited to a special morning workshop on November 8th: ”How to Deliver Dynamite Presentations.” This major leaders.h.i.+p skill was pinpointed by HR as key to manager success, and we're flying an expert in from Chicago to lead the session.

Maybe you have something better to do on November 8, but you understand the opportunity, right? You'll read the rest for details if the workshop appeals to you. If it doesn't, you recognize your disinterest faster.

The point is, when you're writing, lead with strength: Start with the best reasons why the people you're addressing should be interested. They'll always want to know how the matter affects them and will read down to the details if it does.

Provided you've done the brainstorming work we recommend, you now just need to look at your content mapping list. Pick what's most important, relevant to your audience, and intriguing if possible, and make that your lead, in whole or part.

When you're writing the memo, how do you arrive at a lead like the second one? Your preliminary thinking tells you. You already know: * Your goal-To get good attendance at the workshop, which is voluntary.

* Your audience-New and middle managers who badly need to develop presentation skills but may not want to take the time, may fear speaking before an audience, or doubt the session will be helpful.

* Your content-This workshop can directly help the target audience polish a major skill...the skill matters to the company...the session will be taught by a very good person...plan to reserve the time. Plus details about where and when, how to sign up, and so forth.

* Best way of organizing the material-For the medium you're using-e-mail-you must quickly get your points across so that the recipients don't filter the message out.

Now you can build a lead paragraph that covers as many of the content points as you can.

Truth 15. To succeed, cover your ground and remember ”the ask”

With most writing situations, the middle section is the nitty-gritty, descriptive information. It tells the reader how to do something, gives details for an event, specifies the items to be covered in an a.s.signment, provides technical specifications, spells out the reasoning behind a decision, or whatever else is necessary.

Your lead will have set up the reader by defining the subject, setting the tone, and establis.h.i.+ng a ”what's in it for me?” appeal. It might be only a sentence long, as in many e-mails, or it could be several paragraphs of a long doc.u.ment.

Whatever the medium, the middle needs to follow through and cover your content list in the logical order you figured out earlier. It's just a matter of getting the content down on ”paper.”

For example, if you're making an a.s.signment to someone who reports to you, the middle of the message would detail what the a.s.signment consists of. You could do that as a bulleted list or as a narrative, making sure your instructions are clear if the person is new on the job or hasn't done this type of work before.

So, Mike, I'm asking you to a.n.a.lyze the new spare parts program for our widget s.h.i.+pments. We need you to determine whether the program is working properly, whether the parts are arriving on schedule, and whether they are in good condition when they arrive.

Please send me a report detailing your findings in each of these areas. If you think it would be helpful to include a graph or chart to show your results visually, please append it. If you need one of the accountants to work with you, feel free to use my name when you ask for help.

The lead paragraph would have stated the a.s.signment and deadline, and any context needed to do the job well. The closing paragraph might repeat the deadline and any contact information Mike might need.

If you're writing a response to a customer complaint-for example, a letter complaining that a mail-order dress didn't fit-you'd use the opening paragraph to say something positive (such as, ”We are delighted that you've been a customer of X brands for three years, and that you chose Style Y, which we just introduced this season.”). Then you'd use the middle of your message to explain nicely why the error may have happened, because, for example, this style fits differently.

Write the middle quickly-Our recommendation is to write the middle quickly: Get it all down and then go back and edit. That way you can review for the right amount of information: what's not needed, what's missing. You can improve clarity and conciseness; find better words and linkages where the expression is awkward or confusing; and, of course, fix mistakes.

As far as substance goes, you've already done all that prep work in thinking about goals, audience, and content, and part of the payoff now is that it's relatively easy to write the middle.

Depending on the length and nature of your doc.u.ment, you can employ various kinds of graphic devices to help organize your informational material, break it up, and make it accessible: subheads, bold lead-ins, bullets, numbers, and more.

Every message should end well-Many times, the conclusion needs to bring home the action you're requesting. In sales terms, it's ”the ask.” And remarkably, sales trainers find that in many cases, salespeople fail to ask for the business. Let's consider how the messages presented as examples in preceding sections should end.

The training seminar invitation.

Please mark your calendar and e-mail me back by October 30 so we can reserve a seat for you.

The ”share a good idea” memo.

March 1 is the deadline to receive your suggestions-send as many entries as you want. We'll read them all and present the best on the 18th, crediting the contributor, along with awarding the prize. Good luck!

The ”here's a new account for you” e-mail.