3. When Are You Ready To Write?

Writing starts with thought. If you don’t really know what you want to write—what you want to say—you can’t write it. The first step in writing, then, is preparation and research. Let’s look at some examples. In each case we list some of the people you might have to talk to before you even think about actually writing anything. There might be others, depending upon your position and authority, legal considerations, and organizational policies:

· If you have to write a news release announcing the development of a new product or service, you have to know exactly what that new product or service is; how it works, what it will do, its good points and its bad ones, and why people would want or need it. To do this, you will have to spend some time with the people who actually developed it, as well as your marketing and sales staff.

· If you have to prepare a speech to be delivered to a community group explaining why you want to build a new facility in their town, or expand a current one, you have to know why you need the facility and what sort of reaction you can expect to encounter. That means you must be able to answer any negative or potentially negative questions or comments that people might make. To do this you will have to spend some time with the people who say you need the new facility, and why, and review the internal discussions and arguments that went on before the decision was made. You must also meet with those people who can realistically forecast what the results of the new construction will be on both the organization and the community.

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4. When Are You Ready To Write? (Continued)

· If you have to write a letter to the editor of a newspaper, or radio, or TV station, or network responding to negative news coverage your organization has received—such as an article or an editorial—you have to know what the basis of the coverage was, and how much of it was actually legitimate. The odds are that some of it was legitimate. You might have to admit some fault, and if you do, you have to know what you can admit to and what you can promise to do to correct the problem. You must also present your side of the story in a logical and non-antagonistic way. This means you’ll probably have to talk to a organization lawyer, top management, and someone in community relations as well as media relations.

· If you have to write a letter to a beneficiary about a problem with a product or service, you have to know what the actual situation was and how the problem developed. You must also know if the problem was your fault or the beneficiary’s. In either case, you have to know how you can respond and what—if anything—you can offer the beneficiary to placate them for damages or inconveniences either real or imagined in order to maintain goodwill. You will need to talk to product or service specialists, maybe even a organization lawyer, as well as technical support and beneficiary relations.

In all of the above cases, as with all other writing, the actual writing doesn’t even being until the research, planning, and thinking is over. What some people call “writer’s block” is just your mind telling you that you aren’t ready to write something yet because you don’t have enough information, or even know what it is you want to say.

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5. Getting Started: The 5 Ws

Once you have done your research and know what it is you want to write or say, it’s time to get started. The classic tool that journalists use to both organize their material and start writing is the 5 Ws—Who, What, When, Where, and Why. The 5 Ws also includes a sixth element—How.

1) Who is the main person or people involved in the story, speech, announcement, brochure, or in whatever it is you are writing? Who does not need to be a person? Who can also mean a organization, organization, organization, department, or even a product or service. In other words: Who is it about?

2) What happened—or will happen—to Who, or what did—or will—Who do?

3) When did it—or will it—happen?

4) Where did it—or will it—happen?

5) Why did it—or will it—happen?

6) How did it—or will it—happen?

This same approach can work for organizational communication as well as journalism.

It is also the way editors and journalists expect you to write if you are putting together a news release, or anything else that will be going to the media. It is also the same approach you will take when writing for any sort of organization magazine.

Let’s look at each element in more detail, and see how they apply to all different types of writing.

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6. Getting Started: The 5 Ws (Continued)

1) Who

Whether you are writing a news release, a letter to stockholders, or a brochure, you will wants to organize it around Who—the real person, organizational entity, or product or service—you are writing about. Who is first mentioned in the “lead” or opening of the piece of writing. There can be more than one Who in a piece of writing, so it is up to the writer to make sure that the reader knows which one is the focus of the writing.

For example, if the organization’s CEO names a new Managing Director, is the speech, announcement, or news release going to focus on the CEO, or the “new” Managing Director? Both could qualify as Who, but which Who are we going to concentrate on? If the organization introduces a new service or product, is the focus going to be on the organization? Or, on the new service or product? Once again, both could qualify as the Who of the piece of writing.

2) What

What is happening to Who, or What is Who doing? Let’s look at our two examples from the discussion about Who.

If we decide to focus on the new Managing Director, then the What is that someone is being named to fill a top position at the organization. If we look at a new product or service, the focus is on the fact that it is being introduced. In either case, What Who is doing—or What is being done to Who—is also usually up high in the writing.

After all, these two factors are usually the main reason that something is being written in the first place.

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7. Getting Started: The 5 Ws (Continued)

3) When

When is this going to—or did it—happen? Unlike fiction, there is usually a time element—a sense of immediacy or timeliness—in all nonfiction writing. This is especially true in organizational communication. Your readers will want to know why you are telling them this now, instead of last month, last week, or even next week. If the new Managing Director will be starting in a week, there is time to prepare for the change in management. If the executive started six months ago, what difference does it make now? Why didn’t you tell people about it earlier, when it was timely?

In today’s fast-paced world, there is often only a small difference between timely news and information… and history.

4) Where

If Where is important, explain why. If the new Managing Director will have an office in a branch office instead of the organizational headquarters, then Where can become more important. It is the same if a new service or product is available in only a few areas.

5) Why

Why is this being done? Did the old Managing Director retire? Leave the organization? Get promoted? Get transferred? Is the new one being rewarded for years of service? Did the organization hire an executive from another organization? Explain it.

6) How

In some cases, How can be one of the most important elements—such as how a new procedure will be implemented. In others, it is hardly worth mentioning.

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8. Six Words

The “Six Words” technique is another tool that reporters and other nonfiction writers use to figure out where to start a piece of writing. Sometimes it can be used with the 5 Ws, and sometimes it is used separately. Here is how it works.

Organize all your research, notes, and data in any way that work for you. There is no one right way to organize anything to use when you write. Whatever works for you works for you. Since you are the one who is doing the writing, that is all you have to worry about.

Go through your notes and start circling important words or phrases. If, for example, you are going through a list of names, which name or names are the most important? If you are looking at a spreadsheet, sales figures, budget, or any other collection of numbers, what number—or numbers—are the most important? What about an event? Product? Service?

We are not saying that the rest are unimportant. We are just looking for those that are the most important.

One way to do this is to find one word for each of the 5 Ws—and How.

Which Who is the most important Who in your list of names? This doesn’t automatically mean the CEO or Chairman of the Board. What we mean is which Who is the most important one with regard to whatever it is you are writing. If you are writing about a new Managing Director, it’s the new Managing Director. If you are announcing that three of your researchers have won a Nobel Prize, the most important Who is “Three organization Scientists.”

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9. Six Words (Continued)

Do the same thing for What. If, for example, you are announcing the appointment of a new Managing Director, what happened to the old one? Which is more important? Do you need to make a separate announcement about the one leaving before making one about the new one coming in? If the conditions surrounding the departure of the old one are something the organization does not want to focus on, maybe you will decide to ignore it. If you are announcing a new product or service, what is the most important What about it? Price? Performance? Size? Efficiency? Once again, we are not saying the rest of its attributes are unimportant. We are just trying to find the most important one.

Now do the same for When, Where, Why and How.

What quite often happens is that you wind up circling more than one word per category—three things under What, four under Who¸ and so on—go back and rank them according to their importance. Which Who is Number 1 in this piece of writing, which is Number 2, and so on.

Now take your six most important words and put them all together in a single sentence. Use two sentences if necessary. You have distilled and reduced all your research, notes, and data down to their essence. You have not thrown anything out. You have prioritized the information.

In most cases you will now know exactly what it is that you are writing about, and, more important, exactly what it is you want to say about it.

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10. What Comes Next?

Part of the process of deciding what are the most important elements in a piece of writing is the process of categorizing, evaluating, and ranking them.

Once you have started your piece of writing with the most important facts, you now have a guide—you could call it an outline—to help you establish what comes next.

If you had six names on the list under Who, after you deal with Number 1, you’ll want to deal with Number 2, followed by Number 3, and so on. This means that after you have identified who the new Managing Director is, you might want to say who the new Assistant Managing Director is, or who took over the position the new Managing Director vacated—assuming the promotion came from within the organization. It is the same with your list in the What category.

Your first sentence or sentences—what reporters refer to as their lead—sets up the rest of the piece of writing. It then guides you through the rest of the writing. Having said what you said in the first paragraph, what do you need to say next in order to keep the piece of writing smooth, logical, and, we hope, interesting?

While writing may be simple, that doesn’t mean it is easy. As author Gene Fowler once said:

“Writing is easy: all you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until the drops of blood form on your forehead.”

While it is not easy, it can be done. All it takes is some careful and well-focused thought, some research and planning, a good understanding of what it is you are trying to accomplish—and work.

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Assignments

Multiple Choice

1. Your message should be clear to

a. Both you and the person receiving it

b. To you only

c. To the one receiving it

d. None of the above

2. The inability to put words on paper is

a. Being an illiterate

b. Writer’s block

c. Purpose statement

d. Outlining

3. The first step a writer takes before writing is

a. Preparation and research

b. Talking with the media

c. Announcing the product or service

d. All of the above

4. When preparing a speech to be delivered to a community group, you want to

a. Answer any negative questions or concerns

b. Talk to members of the community

c. Review internal discussions and arguments

d. All of the above

5. The actual writing should not take place until ________ is over.

a. Research

b. Planning

c. Thinking

d. All of the above

6. A journalist should answer Who, What, When, Where, and ______when writing.

a. Why

b. Which

c. Will

d. None of the above

7. Part of the process of deciding what are the most important elements in a piece of writing is the process of categorizing, evaluating and _______ them.

a. Outlining

b. Ranking

c. Processing

d. Leading

8. Reporters call the first sentence or sentences that set up the rest of the piece

a. Introduction

b. Topic

c. Lead

d. Outline

Matching the Columns

1. Who	A. The happening or item being introduced.
2. Where	B. An explanation
3. What	C. The real person, organizational entity, product or service.
4. When	D. The place the event or product is being introduced or happening.
5. Why	E. Why you are telling the reader now.
6. How	F. The way something is being implemented.

Answers:

1.) C

2.) D

3.) A

4.) E

5.) B

6.) F

Summary

organizational communication is not about small talk or idle chatter. There must be a reason for releasing information, or even commenting on what others may have said or done. That reason has to be understood so that you can use it as a guide before you even start to frame and phrase the information you plan to release.

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Test

1. ______ A writer should organize his/her research, notes and data in any way that works for the writer.

2. ______ The five Ws are who, what, when, where, and Why.

3. ______ A lead is the sentence that sets up the rest of the writing.

4. ______ organizational communication is all about small talk and idle chat.

5. ______ Writer’s block is when the writer is able to continuously write without hesitation.

6. ______ A writer’s message should be clear to both the writer and the person receiving it.

7. ______ A purpose statement explains why you are saying the message.

8. ______ The first step when writing is making a rough draft.

9. ______ When writing a letter to the editor of a newspaper, you should present your side of the story in an antagonistic way.

10. _____ In order to answer the five Ws, the writer should go through their noes and start circling important words and phrases.

Answers:

1. T

2. T

3. T

4. F – There is a reason to release information.

5. F – It is the inability for a writer to put words on paper.

6. T

7. T

8. F – Is preparation and research

9. F – In an non antagonistic way

10. T

Bibliography

Hohenberg, J. (1987). Concise newswriting. New York: Hastings House.

Klein, T., & Danzig, F. (1985). Publicity: How to make the media work for you. New York: Scribner’s.

Rivers, W. (1964). The mass media: Reporting, writing editing. New York: Harper & Row.

Glossary

Purpose Statement – A sentence that describes what message you are trying to achieve and why you are saying it.

Writer’s Block – The temporary or chronic inability to put words on paper.

Outline – A guide of facts that helps you start writing.

Lead – The first sentence or sentences in a news release that sets up the rest of the piece for the reporter.

Learning Objectives

· Writing takes some careful and well-focused thought, research and planning, and a good understanding of what it is that you are trying to accomplish.

· organizational communication is not small talk to idle chatter. There must be a reason for releasing information, or even commenting on what others may have said or done.

Q&A

1. What are five questions a writer should ask him/herself?

A writer should ask: Who is the main person or people involved in the story?, What happened or will happen?, When did it or will it happen?, Where did or will it happen?, Why did it happen?, and How did it happen?

2. What is the process a writer must make after preparing and researching?

After research and preparation, the writer must decide what the most important elements are in a piece of writing through the process of categorizing, evaluating, and ranking them. Once the writer has the most important facts, it is time to establish what is next and begin the lead of the writing.

3. What is communication strategy?

Communication strategy is knowing what information needs to be released, what is the best way of releasing that information and to whom it should be released.

End of Module