Aim It
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Here are the eight steps of the writing process or what I call the eight rights of writing right. The first step is to aim it. What is your purpose? Focus in on what one reason you have for writing this particular piece of correspondence or report or proposal or memo. Aim it, focus it.
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Write It
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The second step then is, write it. And it doesn't matter what order it's in. In fact, I strongly suggest you write the middle first, then go back and write the beginning and the end. But just write it, put it all out there. It doesn't matter if it's logical or illogical; just get everything you possibly can out there. Brainstorm it. Just get it out there.
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Organize It
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Then the next step, of course, is to organize it. Put it in categories. Form sections of it and so on.
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Clarify It
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The next step after that is what we call de-lard it. Go back and take out all the unnecessary words that make it too wordy, too long, too complicated. Clarify it and clean it up. Take out all the lard.
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Tone It
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The next step then is to tone it. So you've got it clean and you've got it nice and pristine and simple but it may be a little bit terse or it may be a little curt or it may be a little abrupt. So go back in and add a little tone, a little personality. Make sure it sounds like the personality you want it to sound like. Is it going to be too harsh? Otherwise then, soften it. Put a little personality in it.
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Share It
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After that, I suggest then that you share it with your buddy. In your writing-process buddy system, hand it off to your pal and say, would you please read this and come back to me and tell me what you think of it? Are there any mistakes in it? Is there anything you can see that I should change or that's confusing or any typos or misspellings?
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Read It
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So then you've shared it with your buddy. The next thing to do after they've given you all the feedback is read it as if it is a written document. Read it the way a reader would read it with the kind of straight tone, without the nonverbals that you hear in it. Try to make sure you can get a sense out of it and, as I said, sometimes you can even read it backwards, one sentence at a time. The last sentence, the next to the last sentence. Read it out loud so you get a feel for what it sounds like.
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Send It
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And then, of course, the last step, which may seem unbelievably obvious, is after you've done all the other things, send it—because by that time, it's a very good document. So send it to whoever you want to receive this message. And then wait for the response. It should be a good one.
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Back to the Career Development Center
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