Five Tips for Writing Effective Messages

Every time you write an e-mail, a letter, a Facebook message, anarticle—wherever you say it with words—you have an opportunity to makesomething happen. Before you choose the words you want to use, keep in mind thefollowing easy guidelines.
1. Identify the recipient’s characteristics.  
Is it someone who is always in a hurry and thus will only read part ofyour message?  Is it someone who needs to be convinced, requiring moredetails?  Is this a procrastinator who you know will need follow-upmessages to achieve action?  Is this a group of people
2. Know what you want to accomplish.  
What is it you want your reader to do?  There are many reasonsfor writing:  a.to introduce yourself or your company; b.to correct a mistake – theirs or yours; c.to complain about poor service or a defectiveproduct.  If you are clear in your own head what you want to accomplish, youwill have direction when you write.  This is true for the simplest e-mail. Just ask yourself when you start writing it:  What do I want the recipientto do?
3. Inform the reader immediately what you want—in the openingstatement. 
There are some exceptions to this rule, but in general your firstsentence should be an action statement:  this is what you want them to door this is what you want them to know.  I find it exasperating to get amessage that doesn’t tell me until the end what I’m supposed to do.  Orworse, the requested action is buried in the middle somewhere. Often, I missthe requested action, and neglect to respond appropriately.   If youtell us immediately what you want, we are more likely to read on to understandwhy we should do it, and are more likely to do as you request.
4. Provide supporting statements. 
After you have stated what you want, amplify your request.  Thisis where you provide the details for the reader to give your messagecredibility.   When you have clearly stated your goal in thebeginning, these supporting statements help to convince the reader to do whatyou want
5.Inform the reader clearly what the result or benefit will be ofdoing what you ask. 
 Make a simple concludingstatement:  the result of learning about my new company is that you willhave a place to go to buy the most unique widget.  When you need a widget,you will be happy that you know about it.
Joyce T. Strand, AuthorJillian Hillcrest Mysteries