The Red Level Strategies form the foundation for success in Professional Writing. They help us control the rhetorical situation we're writing in, and they represent, to a large degree, much of the work we do before writing.
The rhetorical situation is comprised of the context, purpose
, and
audience
involved in a communication transaction. When we say you want to "control" the rhetorical situation, we certainly don't mean that in a sinister, conniving way. We simply mean that, by carefully implementing the Red Level Strategies, you can ensure that your communication moves you toward accomplishing your goal.
The five Red Level Strategies are listed below. You'll learn more about each of them on the following pages.
Purpose and audience are the fundamentals. If you don't have these elements, you don't have a need to communicate. If you don't understand one or the other, your chances of communicating successfully are slim.
Purpose
Purpose is tied to action -- what you are trying to do, and what you want to have happen after you do it.
To determine your purpose, ask yourself: "Why am I writing? What action do I want the reader to take after reading my message?"
If you can't state this pretty concretely, you may not be ready to write. Try to create a vivid picture in your mind of what you hope to accomplish with your writing.
Audience
Assessing your audience can be a demographic exercise. You'll want to think about how old they are, their gender, financial status, etc., but only insomuch as that gives you information about their needs. The same holds true for factors like personality, intelligence, and so on.
Examine what your relationship is with the person. Think about your audience in context to determine what you need to know. For example, you may be writing operating safety instructions for someone who is working on a factory floor. She is intelligent enough to read a lengthy, technical document in 10pt type. But the woman is working on a factory floor. A laminated poster with three simple bullet points at eye level would be more efficient for her given the context.
Your primary task is to determine what your audience needs from you in order for your communication exchange to be a success -- for them to do what you want them to do (your purpose). Determine what you know, what you need to know, and fill in the gaps.
Once you've gathered information about your audience, you're ready to imagine their perspective, to put yourself in their shoes. This is a useful mental exercise when you want to decide what information you should or shouldn't include in a document or when you want to imagine how your audience will respond to a specific tone or approach.
Use Direct Organization
To use direct organization, give the bottom line, the most important information, right away in the first paragraph of any document. That will be your purpose -- communicate it up front.
Next, explain any reasoning and context that is important.
Then, fill in the details: the who, what, where, when, and why.
Conclude with a motivating closing -- now what? What do you want your reader to do?
Exceptions to direct organization include delivering bad news and scientific writing.
Avoid Murky Management Writing
By far the biggest problem with people's professional correspondence is that they try to puff it up. We have all read and suffered through bad textbooks, ridiculously technical explanations of simple things, and writing that sounds like it was written by someone wearing a powdered wig. Among the Professional Writing faculty, we call this "murky management writing" or "businessese."
Businessese is not efficient because it takes people much longer to read it and provides more opportunities for misinterpretation.
It is also not empathetic because it hurts people's brains and degrades our common humanity. In Don Watson's great book Death Sentences, he compares this type of writing to a "dark, impenetrable thicket" and characterizes it as "repressive, excluding, intimidating, and anesthetic." We cannot be part of this! If writing isn't reasonably easy to read and understand, it isn't good enough to count as cooperative communication.
So why would anyone write like this? Sometimes murky management writing is a result of poorly defined thoughts. We're not sure what we are trying to say, so we fake our way through it.
Other times, we are trying to bolster our credibility, using big language to make our ideas sound impressive. It doesn't work. Impress readers with your clarity instead -- let your ideas carry themselves.
Finally, it's possible that we see this kind of writing out there, and we emulate it – we assume that if it's the norm, it must be working. While it's a good practice to employ the writing conventions used in your industry, good writing can be the legacy you leave for someone else to emulate.
Use Conventions of Business Style
Fortunately for us, there are many conventions of business style that make it easier to write clear, coherent messages. Some of these contradict what we have been taught in English classes for the last however many years. For some people, this is worrisome, and for others, it's liberating. Either way, even if you are aspiring to be a poet, learning to write in this style will sharpen your critical thinking skills and add to your repertoire.
Write in Short Paragraphs
Paragraphs in professional writing are significantly shorter than those in academic papers. Between four and seven sentences is a good guide. Even a one sentence paragraph is fine if it does the job. Readers want to see small, manageable chunks of information -- it makes the writing easier to "digest."
Use Pronouns (You Get to Break an Old Rule!)
If professional writing is an exchange between two people, then we need to refer to those people directly, using pronouns like you, me, we, us, and I. Trying to write without these words would be nearly impossible, so go ahead. You can do it!
Use the Most Familiar Word
Use the simplest, most familiar word that says what you need to say. Use larger, less familiar words only when they help your reader understand something more fully. For example, "before" can almost always be used instead of "prior to." It's usually just as accurate to say "send" as to say "transmit." Here's another favorite -- you can always use "use" rather than "utilize." There is almost nothing that you "utilize" that you could not "use" instead.
Use Technical Jargon When the Audience Understands It
Many writing teachers have a bias against technical jargon -- though they have their own jargon and use it with one another all the time. We have jargon because we need it. It helps us communicate much more efficiently.
Of course, jargon is inefficient (and not very empathetic) when your audience doesn't know it. In that case, either substitute commonly used language for your jargon or briefly define anything that doesn't have a natural substitute.
Generally, you want to avoid "business jargon," which is just another word for businessese. Some examples of businessese are just stuffy expressions like the examples offered above ("utilize" vs. "use"), but others are obscure cliches that have become popular in the corporate world, such as "thinking out of the box," "paradigm shift," and "pushing the envelope." As with any cliche, you want to avoid business cliches and strive for originality and clarity in your writing.