What’s the most important part of writing?
I had three fantastic groups at the recent workshops. Some of them came from a technical background, some from sales and some from customer services.
It might seem that there wasn’t too much of a theme between the different backgrounds especially as some of the delegates’ only writing contribution is about noting things down in a CRM system.
However the approach that I use for all my work is the one is based on a core belief that whatever you need writing for, it has to be carried out with one person in mind.
And that’s not you the writer. It’s your reader.
I’ve had discussions with many clients about this since their logic is that they have to talk about what they can do or the reader won’t understand.
To me that’s the wrong way round.
Let’s take the simple example of taking notes. What’s the purpose of notes?
If you’re taking notes of a conversation with a customer, then you need them to be:
1. A true record of your conversation.
2. Full enough to understand what took place if you don’t look at the note for six months.
3. Clear enough for someone else to read and understand if they have to take over your work for any reason.
In each of those cases, you the writer need to consider you or someone else as the reader and what their needs are.
The same information can be phrased in different ways that would totally confuse someone else, or even yourself if not clear. That’s why no matter what you’re writing, you need to start in the same place.
What does the reader need to understand from the notes, or the report or the ad, of whatever the piece is?
And in case you’re misreading the question, it isn’t what do I want them to understand, but what they need to understand.
Part of the group discussion in the workshops was about training manuals. I’m happy to admit that I’m not technical. Which means that if I buy some software, or a piece of equipment I want to be able to use it without any pain. Or at least as little pain as possible.
As I explained in the workshop, manuals are often written in what for me appears to be double dutch or another incomprehensible language. When you examine why that happens, it’s usually because, regardless of the language, the manuals are written by people who understand the product or system.
One way a company can avoid purchasers throwing the manual out of the window is to supply a short – very short introduction.
A “this is where you start”. And you divide it up into this is where you start if you know absolutely nothing, then this is where you start if you can do this, and this is where you start if this is a new version of what you already have.
That approach at least gives the customer the feeling you care about their problems and they’re likely to give you more time before they throw the manual out the window.
Well it works for me – how about you?
