Document Planning . . .

A commenter on a previous post brought up an excellent point.  I mentioned in that post that the place to start for those writing business documents only occasionally involves determining the nature of the audience for the document, and the nature of what you want your document to do for that audience.  That “what you want the document” to do is the rhetorical purpose.

The commenter responded by noting that outlining is also important.

Indeed, as I responded to her, structured documentation methodologies for the most part get away from traditional outlining methods.  However, most people who have to write business documents just on an occasional basis do not have that sort of training.  Therefore, outlining can serve such people quite well as an element of their planning process.

That, in the final analysis, is what it boils down to:  planning.  With rare exceptions, well executed business documents [or really any document, in this case even academic writings] come about as a result of a solid planning process.

Your planning process may take one stage or multiple stages.  Generally, if you have research or data gathering, you will have at least two planning stages:  planning the research efforts; and then, once you have the information, planning the actual document.

A good outlining or planning process involves sussing out the most effective order to present your information so that it most satisfactorily fulfills reader need from the individual document.

So, for the layperson writer, so to speak, who must write the occasional document on the  job, you will . . . as mentioned in a previous post . . . most effectively start with identifying who your reader is [or readers are], then you will next determine what that reader needs to get out of the document.

And then, your next step in creating the most effective document you can produce will involve planning how to organize your information and structure your data to meet your reader’s need in the document.

All of this goes on before you do any real writing, except for the minimal notes of making outline headings.

The better your plan for the document, the more effective your final product is likely to be. 

That is, the more solid planning you do "upfront," the more likely you are not only to find your final document more effective in terms of serving reader needs:  you are far more likely to find that actual composition part of the writing process easier to execute . . . and possibly even more enjoyable than you will with no plan or a poor-to-mediocre plan.

So, when you must write an occasional document on-the-job, take the time upfront for some good, solid planning using a planning method . . . such as outlining . . . that works well for you.