 We receive a lot of instruction on writing over our lifetime, and most of it comes in a structured package like this, neatly laid out in an orderly process. The ugly truth about the writing process, however, is that it's usually a complete mess that looks more like this. New ideas necessitate repeated drafts, which lead to further revision during which you will undoubtedly have a new idea, which requires an additional draft with more editing and revision, and on it goes until you finally hit the absolute drop dead deadline and are forced to hand over what you are absolutely certain is the worst thing that you have ever written. Welcome to the world of writing and revising. I'll be your guide. In this video we will discuss the fundamentals of effective writing and revising in organizational communication, including notes on writing style and making effective arguments. Effective writing begins with getting organized, which we can think of almost like a funnel. We start with the broadest goal in defining the general purpose. Refine that a bit more in the development of the specific purpose, and finally clearly lay out our intentions and ultimate goal in the central idea statement. Let's take a look at each of these steps. The general purpose statement very simply establishes the overall direction of your writing. It can usually be stated in two words. The first word is always two. The second word will depend on the goal of your writing. Some common general purpose statements include to inform, to persuade, and to entertain. The general purpose statement should align with the intended outcome of your communication. Once you've established your general purpose statement, you can continue to narrow the focus of your writing with the specific purpose statement. The specific purpose statement has three components. It begins by restating the general purpose. It then adds an identification of the intended audience and states the topic of the communication. For example, a specific purpose statement for this particular portion of this video might be to inform my audience about organization in communication. Again, the goal here is to narrow the focus of our writing by identifying our target audience and then clarifying the topic for discussion. The central idea statement will continue this focusing process by stating not only the topic of communication but the main ideas as well. An example of a central idea statement for this section of the video might be this document will share information on organizing your professional communication, including organization basics, writing style, and making an argument. As you can see, it restates the topic of organizing your professional communication, then goes on to identify the main points that will be addressed. Next, we need to select the organizational pattern that best allows us to achieve our goals. As you can see here, there are a variety of different organizational patterns from which you can choose. We won't go over each of them individually in this video, but a few of the more commonly utilized patterns include chronological order in which main points are organized in a time-based or sequential pattern, problem solution where the problems of an issue are identified and then followed by proposed solution to that issue, and topical, which is a sort of catch-all where main points are simply organized in a way that best makes sense. Once we've established the more generalized elements of our communication, we can focus on creating the main points. There are a few things to keep in mind when establishing main points. First, you should have between two and five main points. Any more than this and the audience can have trouble keeping track. You should also be careful about using the word and in any main point. This is typically a trick for trying to fit two different and distinct main points under the umbrella of one and can be confusing for the audience. Finally, keep the principles of primacy and recency in mind when organizing your main points. Audiences tend to remember best what they hear first and what they hear last, so your most important points should either come first or last in your communication. You should also be very intentional in utilizing effective transitions between your main points. I'm one of those weird people who can't stand having all their food touch on their plate, unlike for the flavors to be kept separate and distinct. If it were up to me, everyone would use one of these nifty plate dividers for every meal to ensure proper separation and preservation of each food's unique qualities. Even if you think that's weird for food, it is how we should think of our main ideas for effective communication. We use transitions to create separate and distinctive main ideas. Transitions may include things like signposts or using phrases like first, second, third, next or in conclusion to signal a pivot or change to a different main idea to the audience. Or we may employ a review preview strategy for especially complicated or detailed main ideas where we give the audience a brief preview of what they will be hearing and or review the elements of the main point before moving on to the next. Whatever strategy we choose, transitions are critical in establishing distinctive main points and aiding an audience in their navigation and understanding of the information. Finally, it is important that we devote adequate time and energy to outlining our communication in advance. Not only does this allow us to organize our ideas more effectively, but it's also beneficial in ensuring an appropriate balance between main ideas and making sure that supporting information is aligned effectively within those main ideas. When we actually begin the writing process, it's critical that we consider some of the elements of writing style. To start, we must recognize the difference between personal and professional writing. In the years before texting and social media became prevalent, writing existed almost exclusively in the professional realm. As such, virtually all writing was professional in tone. Now, however, we write extensively using a more personal tone when connecting with social contacts via text, email, social media, and other non-professional channels. We should be careful to distinguish between the two and keep a professional tone for professionally related communication. We also need to recognize the difference between writing and speaking. We generally don't use the same tone or even the same vocabulary in writing that we do when speaking. The two will not necessarily translate well directly from each other. Finally, we need to note the difference between formal and informal tone. While each of these may be appropriate in various contexts, it's incumbent upon the writer to identify which will best serve the purpose of each respective communication effort. Professional writing often involves making an effective argument. For this, we will rely largely on the modes of persuasion set forth by Aristotle, which you have likely come across previously. Aristotle's modes of persuasion includes three different elements, ethos, pathos, and logos. In short, ethos relates to credibility, which we frequently ascribe to the perceived character and competence of the writer or speaker. Pathos involves emotional appeals, or in other words, tugging at the heart strings. Alternatively, logos refers to logical appeals to claim involving the use of facts, statistics, or other hard data to persuade those in the audience. The basic elements of logic start with a claim or asking, what do you know? Added to this are evidence, or how did you know it? And reasoning, how does your evidence prove your claim? Put together these three elements hopefully add up to a logical assertion for the audience. It is important that a communicator avoid common logical fallacies, which essentially constitute illogical claims. Some of the more logic common logical fallacies are identified here, including slippery slope, ad hominem attacks, and bandwagon claims. Once you have an initial draft of your communication, you will want to go back through your writing in the revision process. There are several things that you'll want to look for as you review your document. First, be sure that you have patched holes in your arguments by addressing any potential counter arguments that may come from the audience. If these things have not been sufficiently addressed in the initial draft, then you should add them during the revision process. Next bear in mind that persuasion is incremental. It's very rare for a communicator to swing an audience member from totally opposed to totally in favor, or vice versa. These things happen in stages. And if you can move an audience, even one or two steps towards your desired outcome, then that should be seen as a, as a success. You should also be sure that you've targeted the needs of your audience. Remember that the quality of your argument is really less significant than whether or not it reaches the audience in a meaningful way. As such, be sure to keep their needs in mind when crafting your arguments. Also be sure that you are appealing to shared values with your audience members. People tend to be persuaded more by those that they believe share their values and are speaking to them from a perspective of empathy. Overall, the revising process should include efforts to evaluate the content of your communication, the effective organization of the main points and ideas, the style and tone of the writing and the readability of the document from the perspective of the audience. Effective writing and revising takes time and can be an incredibly tedious process. In the end, though, whether or not your writing leads to the desired result may very well depend on these exact things. And I would suggest that this is time and energy well spent.