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Imagine how unhappy you would be if you submitted a report and your audience came
away with a message completely different from what you had intended. For example,
suppose your manager is considering adopting a specific new billing system in your
office and has asked you to report on the pros and cons of this system. You worked hard,
gathered plenty of information, and wrote a detailed report which, in your opinion, gave
strong support for adopting the new system.
However, the first few pages of your report described systems other than the one under
consideration. Next, you presented the reasons not to implement the new system.
Throughout the report, embedded in the body of several different paragraphs, you
mentioned the advantages offered by the new system; but they were not grouped
together so that you could emphasize them with a heading or other signpost for the
reader. At the end of the report, you reviewed the current billing system and stated that
few problems were encountered with it.
When you delivered your report, the manager and colleagues who received it missed
your most important information and decided not to consider the new system any
further. Worse, your manager later criticized you for spending too much time on the
report, saying it was not very informative. Situations like this can be avoided if you
provide a clear organizational framework to draw your reader’s attention to your main
points.
Analyzing is distinct from reading. When you read, you attempt to grasp the author’s
meaning via words and symbols, and you may come away with a general emotional
feeling about what the writer has written instead of an arsenal of facts. When you
analyze a document, you pay more attention to how the author assembled the
information to present a coherent message. Business writing often involves
communication via words and symbols in ways that meet audience expectations; in
many cases, the audience needs to be able to analyze the content, and reading is
secondary. For this reason, a solid organizational pattern will greatly enhance your
document’s effectiveness.
Key Takeaway
Logical organization is important to promote reader understanding and analysis.