discussion 5

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Steve Strauss is a best-selling author and the senior USA Today small business columnist. He runs the website TheSelfEmployed.com.

STEP 5: FILL IN MISSING CONTENT; DELETE EXTRANEOUS CONTENT

“I hate it when I have to wade through a bunch of information I don’t need to get to the information I do need.”

—SURVEY RESPONDENT

Most of us are writing in a hurry, and one of the biggest risks of writing in a hurry is making mistakes with content—either forgetting something or including too much. When you write a first draft, you tend to just splat out whatever is in your head. Sometimes you include information that isn’t really relevant. Sometimes you forget to include important content. That’s perfectly normal for a first draft, but before you send your document off to its final destination, you need to be sure you’ve included the right content.

Forgetting important content usually has one of two possible outcomes. Either the reader zones out and gives up, or he has to follow up with you to get the content he needs, wasting time on both your parts.

Including too much information can also make life harder for your reader. Extraneous content will force your reader to work to figure out why you’re saying all this and what she’s supposed to do about it. If your message ends up being too long and vague, your reader might give up entirely.

A quick content check helps ensure that your readers are getting exactly what they need. Let’s look at a couple of examples to see how this works.

All, Just a reminder that next Thursday’s training session is mandatory. Everyone in the group needs to complete diversity training for compliance purposes.

If you haven’t done the diversity training module during the last twelve months, you need to do it this time. Everyone has to complete the training by the end of May, or it could affect our licensing.

We’ve got two more slots with the vendor. Please ensure you make it to one of the two upcoming sessions. If you know you cannot make it, let me know now. Thanks, Mona

You can tell that Mona is concerned about making sure everyone gets this training and that she’s worried about what will happen if people miss it. She’s also worried that people are going to blow it off. She’s so worried about these issues, she’s forgotten to provide helpful information about when and where the training will take place. First she mentions “next Thursday,” then she refers to “two more slots with the vendor,” and the overall effect is confusing.

Mona takes a step back and thinks about what her readers really need, what’s at stake, and how to communicate it best. She realizes that she needs to add those dates.

All, To renew our licensing, everyone in the group must complete the diversity training module by May 31. If you haven’t yet, you have two more chances:

February 11: 2–3 p.m. March 27: 10–11 a.m. If you don’t remember the last time you did this training, let me know and I will confirm. If you absolutely can’t make either of these times, let me know immediately. This has to get

done. Thank you! Mona

Reviewing your draft for content often helps you improve it in other ways as well. Mona has added the new information her readers need—the dates of the training sessions—and in

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