This document provides guidance on effective business writing. It emphasizes that clear communication is essential for leadership and business success. It outlines a four-stage writing process: pre-writing, writing, revising, and publishing. During pre-writing, writers should explore ideas, choose a topic, research, and create an outline. The writing stage involves drafting content. Editing involves revising for clarity on sentences, word choices, punctuation, spelling, and grammar. Effective writing also considers the audience, establishes purpose, crafts a clear message, and uses an appropriate style and tone.

1. Cornerstone Insurance Plc.
Business Writing Workshop
Keys to Effective Writing
Facilitator: Richard O. Ikiebe
16 January, 2016

2. Communication & Leadership
Effective communication is the core of all
effective leadership activities
“70% of all management problems are a result
of faulty communication.” P. Drucker
Success or failure for most enterprise is
dependent on how successfully it does its job
and communicates it
2

3. Features
• Great Idea-
• Good and thorough “Thinking through”
• Structure
• Appealing Narrative/ stories
• Convincing Statistics, Facts and Figures
• Understandable Illustrations
3

4. Purpose
Clarity of purpose
– Why?
– What?
– To whom?
– How?
– 5 W+ 1H
4

5. Strong Points KSFs Structure
• Normal Essay/document structure
• (Abstract) it does not apply in all writing
• Introduction/Opening/Lead
• Exposition/Body
• Illustrations/Demonstrations/ Story telling
• Conclusion/Closing
• Recommendations/Call for Action/Prayer
5

6. Be Process Oriented
A good process begins at a place and takes the
designer to a desired end
For our purpose we shall have four stages
1. Pre-writing
2. Writing/drafting
3. Revising/proof-reading & editing
4. Publishing
6

7. 1. Pre-writing stage
Explore topic ideas
Choose a topic
Research. Gather information
Organise materials to form an outline before
writing the first draft.
– (As much as possible follow your outline, but be
flexible with content)
7

8. Exploring ideas
What really do I want to say ? – The central
message… What do I have to say??
Why??? What is my general purpose – am I
writing for personal reason?
What audience do I have in mind for this idea?
At the exploration stage, a lot of thinking is
required
8

9. 2. The Writing Process
Writing is not something mysterious done
according to a magical formula known only to a
few
Even if you have not done much writing before,
you can learn to write effectively
Writing is not a hit-or-miss affair, left up to
chance
Successful writing requires hard work and
thoughtful effort
9

10. The Writing Process (Cont.)
Writing does not proceed in some predicable
way, introductions are not always written first
and conclusions last
What you have on paper is not permanent
and unchangeable
Writing means rewriting, revising, rethinking.
The better a piece of writing is, the more the
writer has reworked it
Keys to Effective Writing10

11. 3. Editing
The last stage of the writing process is editing.
When you edit you check for:
– Sentences (Do they say what I have in mind?)
– Word choices (Do they mean what I intended?)
– Punctuation (Are they in the correct places?)
– Spelling (Is this right?)
– Grammar (Is this correct?
11

12. Types of Writing
Determining the type of writing you need to
do
It may help determine:
– your topic (subject)
– purpose (why)
– style (how) and
– tone (attitude toward the subject)
• supportive, condemning, objective, etc.)
12

13. Traits of Effective Writing
Most good writing have the following traits:
– Stimulating Ideas
– Logical Organisation
– Authentic Voice
– Engaging illustrations/stories
– Original Word Choice
– Effective Sentence Style
– Correct, Accurate Copy
Keys to Effective Writing13

14. Keys to Effective Writing
The questions who? why? what? and how? do
not function independently: they are all related.
Always remember that you write:
– Who will read what I write? For which specific
audience?
– Why should they read what I write? Have a clearly
defined purpose in mind
– What do I have to say to them? The message your
readers need to understand
– How can I best communicate? Style and Tone. A
language appropriate for the occasion.
14

15. Your Audience
Pls keep in mind that:
– Members of each audience differ in
• backgrounds
• experiences
• needs and opinions
– How well you know your audience determines what
you say to them, & how well you connect with them
– Seeing from the audience’s perspective will help you
select the most relevant details for that audience
15

16. Key Questions to ask about the
Audience
Who is my audience?
What individuals will most likely be reading
my work?
What is the make up my audience? If divers,
find their common cord
How well does my audience understand my
choice language?
How much does my audience already know
about the topic of choice?
16

17. Key Questions to ask about the
Audience
Why should my audience read my work?
What are my audience’s expectations?
What is my audience’s attitude toward me and
my type of writing?
What do I want my audience to do after
reading my work?
17

18. Establish Purpose Early
Establish purpose clearly at the start of your
writing Why are you writing?
Purpose controls the amount and the order of
information you include the writing
By knowing why you are writing
–you will communicate better and
–find writing to be an easier process.
18

19. Message
Your message is the sum of what facts you put
into your writing
A message includes the scope and details of your
communication
Scope refers to how much information you give
readers about the key details
The key details are those key points you think
readers need to know
Adapt your MESSAGE to fit your audience
19

20. Language & STYLE
The how of writing rather than the what.
Style determines how well:
– you communicate with an audience
– your readers understand and
– they receive your message.
It involves the decisions you make about:
– construction of your paragraphs
– length and patterns of your sentences
– Your choice of words
20

21. Language & Style
You will have to adapt your style to take into
account
– different forms of messages
• is it a memo or an article?
• A story for an in-house publication or an international
magazine?
– different purposes (a drama sketch for stage or tv or
radio; are you writing for the ear, eye or the mind? Or
for the internet)
– different audiences (a mixed audience? Men or
women only? Children? Youth or the elderly?
21

22. TONE
Choice of tone is guided, like your speaking tone of
voice, by:
– your attitude toward a topic and
– Your attitude toward your audience.
Your tone can range from:
– formal and impersonal (a scientific report) to
– informal and personal (e-mail to a friend).
Tone is indicated in part by:
– the words you choose.
– how you arrange your words into sentences.
– And how you arrange your sentences into paragraphs
22

23. Writing approach
Work on document section by section
Create general statements of sections
focusing on topic sentence
Deepen details of sections if and when
needed, focusing on expanding topic
sentence
23

24. Develop schedule
Be mindful of timeline - between
assignment & submission deadline
Determine actionable schedule, including
research and information gathering
Checklist
Team requirements
24

25. Strong Points-KSFs Narrative
• Language
• Grammar
• Words
• Phrases/phraseology
• Sentences
• Paragraphs
• Transitions/Flow
• Appeals
• Figures/Numbers/ illustrations
25