Tag Archives: purpose

Writing to achieve an outcome – the organisation’s intent

Thinking & writing, writing tip, ,

When we are writing at work, the document we produce needs to achieve an outcome for our organisation.

Perhaps the outcome is people buying a product, workers acting in a specific way, staff well aligned to goals, or some other intent.

Documents we produce at work can be described as ‘functional documents’.

That is, we write them to help the organisation achieve a goal of some sort.

Having this goal clearly in mind as you craft your document gives you focus. It helps you decide what content you will include, how you will organise the ideas, and the words you will use to get these ideas into your readers heads in a way they will they will respond in they way you want.

But, of course, your document must also meet your users’ needs.

Keep both sets of needs in mind as you write – the needs of your organisation and the needs of your reader.

Purposeful communication – beyond shared understanding

Plain language / Plain English, Thinking & writing,

In business and government, we write functional documents. Functional documents demand purposeful communication.

Traditional models of communication have understanding as the goal of communication. A person constructs an idea, codes into media (speech, text, images), and then transmits it. The receiver decodes and reconstructs that as a new idea. Feedback and re-transmitting continues until both the sender and the receiver have the same idea. That is, the aim is a shared understanding. But that is not good enough for functional documents.

Purposeful communication starts by asking ‘Why?”.

The purpose of all business and government communication is to impact the thinking, attitudes or behaviour of readers in some way. We write to achieve an organisational purpose.

For example, marketing communication aims, ultimately, to get people to buy from you. Policies and procedures aimed to cause people to act in a particular way.

Purposeful communication goes beyond understanding and effectively transmitting ideas. It is more about influence.

So, the simplest way of testing any communication piece is to look at your audience. Are they doing what you wanted them to do? Are they moving towards doing what you want? Is your document achieving purpose?

Define purpose before you write

Plain language writing starts by being clear about your purpose. Before writing, complete a sentence in this structure:

As a result of reading this document <my reader> will
<do, think, feel> something.

The purpose of your document will support the overall purpose of your organisation.

For a government agency or not-for-profit, purpose will likely be related to fulfilling its mission. That mission may be to provide good roads or to administer taxes fairly or to provide care services to a part of the community.

For a business, its ultimate purpose is probably to make a profit. (But there will be other important things like ensuring its employees work safely, protecting the environment and the like.) A business will have other aims and objectives that support this purpose like increasing market share, keeping quality on track, or improving the skills of its employees.

Effective purposeful communication will supports these aims and objectives.

Workplace communication aims to enhance the business performance of the organisation. Purposeful communication enables and energises employees to carry out strategic intent. Communication is a means, not an end.

Can you know a document will achieve purpose before it is published?

Sensible user testing gives good insights and can help you avoid reckless writing. Communication products, like all products, should be tested before being released.

Define purpose before writing

Plain language / Plain English, Thinking & writing, writing tip,

The starting point for any writing project, any document, is to be clear about your purpose before you start.

Writing a crisp, clear purpose statement helps you to focus your mind. It will help you when you make decisions about content – deciding what goes in and what you will leave out.

A clear purpose will also guide your writing style – do you need to be formal or more friendly.

To clarify your purpose think about the impact you would like to have on your reader – ask yourself “What do I you want my readers to think or feel or do after reading?” Answer in a sentence structured like this ‘As a result of reading this, I want Mr Smith to … whatever it is”.

Your purpose statement does not need to be complex or clever, it just needs to be clear.