Writing for Business and Pleasure
Copyright by Stephen Wilbers
www.wilbers.com

One morning your boss walks into your office.  She has a big smile on her face, so you know something good is about to happen to you.

“I want you to write article for our company newsletter,” she says.  “I’m asking you to do it because I know what a good writer you are.”

You feel complimented and empowered that you would be selected for such an important assignment.

“By the way,” she adds.  “We’re on a tight deadline, so I need your copy by 5 o’clock tomorrow.  Thanks.”

With this new information, you feel not only complimented and empowered but challenged.

You are pleased with this opportunity to prove your worth.  And as luck would have it, just this morning you read something in the paper about how to write newsletter articles.  It was a checklist of helpful reminders by your favorite columnist.

You retrieve the paper from your briefcase and skim the items on the checklist.  It is organized into five parts:

1.  Supporting components (title, opening story summary, and accompanying photographs or illustrations):

■Are relevant and helpful to the reader’s understanding of the topic or theme of the story.

■Accurately convey the topic or theme of the story.

■Engage the reader by arousing curiosity or interest in the topic.

2.  Lead:

■Announces or introduces the topic of the article.

■Engages the reader by arousing interest or curiosity in the topic.

■Presents material from the reader’s point of view (by recognizing or appealing to the reader’s interests, values or biases).

■Optional.  Indicates or suggests the scope of the article.

3.  Body:

■Presents relevant background and history to make the topic understandable to the reader.

■Explains significance and broader implications of the topic or recommendation.

■Illustrates main points or themes with specific examples and sufficient data.

■Uses transitions to connect the article’s main points or major components.

4.  Conclusions:

■Emphasizes the significance of the topic to the reader.

■Repeats the most important point.

■Provokes the reader to think more deeply about the topic.

■Provides the information (or incentive) necessary for the reader to respond or to take the desired action.

5.  Language/miscellaneous:

■Language and tone are appropriate for the audience and the purpose.

■Word choice is clear, specific, accurate, unassuming, and free of misused jargon and cliches.

■Sentences are free of wordiness, ambiguity, and unnecessarily involved constructions.

■Paragraphs are brief and sharply focused (but adequately developed).

■Quotations or testimonials illustrate and reinforce the main points.

■Copy is carefully edited and free of distracting errors in spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

■Information is sufficient, relevant, and accurate, including all facts, dates, statistics, spellings of names, etc.

■All necessary permissions, approvals, and authorizations have been secured.

■Purpose – whether to inform, entertain, or persuade the reader, or to induce the reader to take action, or to elicit information from the reader – is clearly expressed.

No problem.  You’ll write your article this afternoon, let it rest overnight, go over it one more time in the morning, and give it to your boss before lunch.