I teach business writing at a local university, and one of the main takeaways from the course that I try to instill in my students is this: strong writers have a process. A writing process can save you time and can help you to create quality, professional content.

Built into this process is a crucial step: revision. It’s simply not enough to take an idea, put it down on the page, and press post (or submit the work for publication, or send the work out to clients or readers via email or other channels).

What is meant by a writing process?

A writing process is a set of steps that you follow to guide you from the idea phase into the publication phase.

Most writing processes are loosely divided into these three steps:
1. Plan.
2. Write.
3. Revise.

PLAN

In the planning phase, we do not start writing yet. We might think of the planning phase as a ‘thinking phase.’ In this phase, we have to ask ourselves two key questions:

1. Who is my audience?

If we know our audience (say, Steemit readers), we can target this audience by choosing language that will appeal to these readers and topics that will engage them.

If we do not know our audience (say, we are sending out marketing materials for a new business), we want to use broad language (avoid technical terms and jargon) that will appeal to a wide audience and ensure they understand our message. If we are communicating across borders, we also want to make sure we are not using culturally-specific language (like clichés).

2. Why am I writing?

Here, we want to consider the purpose of our message. The purpose of our message may be to inspire, to entertain, to educate, to persuade, to inform… etc. Once we have considered our purpose, we can use writing techniques to help us fulfill that purpose.

For instance, if our purpose is to persuade, we want to employ some persuasive writing techniques. One persuasive writing technique is to strategically place key words.

For example, if we are writing a cover letter to help us gain employment, a key word may very well be the name of the company that we are applying to. The end of a sentence is a great place to insert a key word or key phrase: I thank you for your time and your consideration of my application for the position of Account Manager with Everyday Design Co.

Importantly, whether we have one reader, ten readers, or ten thousand readers, and whether our purpose is to inspire or inform (or anything else), we want to ensure a clear and concise message.

I hope you found this post useful! If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask them in the comments. I’ll detail the Writing Phase (Step 2) and the Revising Phase (Step 3) in my next posts.