Get started. Set a specific time for
writing and treat it as an appointment with a client. Allow no
interruptions.
Clarify your purpose before you start.
Are you informing, requesting or persuading? If
you want your reader to act on your message, then you are
probably writing to persuade. Understanding your own
intentions will help you be more effective.
Write straight through the first draft.
Don’t dither over minor word choices or jump up
from your desk to look for a small piece of data to plug in.
Get the whole document on paper; you can revise later.
Don’t give too much history. Provide
background information that pertains directly to the situation
at hand. Too much history bores the reader and tires the
writer.
Put your main point first (unless you have good
reason to put it at the end). Your reader is
most influenced by what he or she sees first; make your first
point count.
Don’t inundate the reader with data.
Focus on the bottom-line information. Give
access to minutiae through appendices or online references.
After you draft the document, put it aside.
This may seem counterintuitive, but taking a
break between writing and revising will save you time and
effort. Take a stroll around the block before you edit your
work.
Keep sentences short. Don’t agonize
over how to structure and punctuate an overlong sentence.
Delete needless words. Create two or more shorter sentences
out of a 30-word behemoth. Eliminate redundancies.
Split long sentences at conjunctions.
If your sentence is too long, split the sentence
either at a relative pronoun ( which, that, since or
because ) or at a conjunction ( or, and or
but ).
Leave time for proofreading. Be sure
there are no spelling errors or typos. This includes the
mistakes spell check can leave behind, such as where/wear,
four/for and countless others. Read the document
yourself after you’ve run spell check. | 
