Bottom line: We need me to acquire this knowledge now.
“Guess what? My boss said yes. And she told me that my memo was
really well written.”
EXERCISE 6: Get Your Thoughts Down on Paper
You have been asked to write a reference letter for a colleague whom you
respect and admire. Think about who this might be. It might be someone
you went to school with, or it might be someone you have worked
with in the past or work with now.
Whomever you choose, think about the job this person would logically
be applying for at this point in his or her career. Think about the person
who would be conducting the interview. That stranger—the person
your colleague is hoping will hire him or her—is the person who has asked
for this written reference.
1. What’s your objective? For example, do you want the recipient
of your reference letter to call you for further details?
2. What sort of personality would you expect the person you’re
writing to to have? You don’t know the person, of course, but
based on the job, what would you expect? (Remember that if
you can’t tell someone’s personality, you target the Producer.)
3. Which of your colleague’s attributes, skills, or abilities is likely
to be of greatest value to a prospective employer?
4. How formal should the tone be?
5. In which quadrant of the Matrix of Persuasion does this
project fall?
6. Which organizational structure should your letter employ?
7. Use either a traditional outline or the Hub & Spokes model to
identify key points you want to make.
How did you do? Were you able to quickly go through the seven steps?
Are you ready to write a first draft? In this chapter, we continued the
process of getting our thoughts in order before we begin to write. We
reviewed nine organizational structures, and we discussed two approaches
to getting thoughts that are in your head down on paper. Now it’s time
to put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard.
Business Writing for Results
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