Summary - 10 steps to awesome documents

Step 1 Identify your audience. Who is your reader - disgruntled customer, supervisor, solicitor?

    What characteristics might influence your reader’s response? Education, expectations, personal opinions.

Step 2 Clarify your Topic. This is more that just the title.

    What do I want to say? Is the topic a review, a sales enquiry, a follow up from a previous contact, a request?

Step 3 Identify your purpose. Why am I writing this? This is quite separate from your topic. Are you trying to: persuade someone;

    introduce something new; convince someone; argue a new point?

Step 4 Planning your document. There are number of tools available to plan your document: mind mapping; 5Ws/1H (who, what,

    where, when, why and how); brainstorming (good for groups).

    Step 5 Research. There are few main questions you need to ask yourself. What do I know? What do I need to find out? Where will

    I find it? What type of evidence do I need?

    Step 7 Draft. This is the tricky bit. JUST WRITE – DON’T EDIT. Address all the points you signposted in your outline. Now leave it for

    a while (if possible). Taking a bit of a breather will allow you to return to your topic with a fresh perspective.

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     Summary - 10 steps to awesome documents

    Step 8 Editing. This is a separate process from proofreading. Begins after you have completed the writing step. Editing covers a

    number of levels in your document including tone, style, content and structure.

Step 9 Proofreading. Last step where you check for errors in grammar and spelling. Don’t rely on spellcheck!

    Step 10 Formatting. This covers format, type size and fonts, margins and spacing. The type of document, the message and audience

    will dictate most style choices. Check to make sure you are consistent throughout your document.

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