Business Writing for Results

Before you write, you need to think about what thoughts, beliefs, emotions, or ideas are meaningful to your target readers.

By dividing the task of writing into three distinct steps, you’ll find the process of writing easier and discover shortcuts that will save you time. The three steps are:

Step One: Get Your Thoughts in Order

Step Two: Create a Draft on Paper (or on Your Computer)

Step Three: Revise for Clarity

Malcolm Forbes once said, “A good business letter can get you a job interview, get you off the hook, or get you money. It’s totally asinine to blow your chances of getting whatever you want with a business letter that turns people off instead of turning them on.”

ork in jobs that allow them to interact with a lot of people and use their creative flair.

• The Data Collector is independent, self-reliant, rational, curious, systematic, and self-contained. Data Collectors love research. They are fact oriented and tend to work in jobs that require attention to detail.

• The Producer is impatient, focused, ambitious, goal oriented, competitive, and intolerant of people’s foibles. Producers are terrific problem-solvers. They are doers and tend to work in jobs that allow them to work toward a clearly understood goal.

• The Optimist is sunny in spirit, impulsive, dramatic, fun, articulate, emotional, and sensitive. Optimists are party animals. They are creative and tend to

• The Accommodator likes people but prefers small groups. Accommodators are kind, gentle, calm, methodical, and prudent. They are caretakers and tend to work in jobs that allow them to be helpers.

Accommodator, the Optimist, the Producer, and the Data Collector.

People are different from one another. In order for your writing to generate results, you need to know enough about your target readers to be able to figure out which benefits will motivate them to act.