Making the Message Accessible to the Reader

When it comes to writing, the presentation is almost as important, if not more so, as the content itself. Business documents are created for a purpose. The writer wants a certain action undertaken, so business writing is always action-oriented.


If you do not format and present your information well, that hard-hitting message will get lost in a sea of words. In this lesson, we look at the miracle known as formatting, which helps any professional or non-professional get the message across to the targeted reader.

Once you have the purpose and the reader profile developed, the next step would be to organize your thoughts and ideas. Good organization is a key component for delivering a message succinctly and professionally. Remember: When writing in a business environment, you are writing to another professional who takes time out from his or her busy schedule to read your document. Structure your writing in such a way that the reader does not have to try too hard to search for the message.

Aristotle, who many feel is the father of persuasion with his essays and writings, said that rhetoric is the art of discovering the available means of persuasion. What does this mean exactly? It means that in conversations between two individuals, whether consciously or unconsciously, there is the effort to persuade someone to your point of view.

Here are a few questions to keep in mind:

• Does your document have a logical progression of ideas?


• Have you put your reader's interest first in the document?


• Is your document organized with similar information in the same place?


• How many paragraphs do you have?


• Are your paragraphs based on the same idea?