Part 2: Narrow Your Questions, Shape Your Answers
In the last column we proposed a quick and easy way to approach a short piece of writing ("The Five-Minute Miracle," January/February 2003 Newsletter). Briefly, you set up a conversation with your reader in which you begin with your main message and then answer your reader's probable questions about that message. Your main message will require only the opening sentence or paragraph (from one to three sentences in all). The bulk of your writing will consist of your answers to the questions you think your readers would have. Now we must see how to make those answers easy to write and useful to read.

Narrow Your Reader's Questions
The first step to easy answers is finding the right questions. The right questions are the ones that tell the readers what they most want and need to know. It is worth spending some time considering what questions are most important, so as not to waste more time answering others that lead you away from the main reasons for your report. For example, suppose you are writing a progress report with the following main message:
Although phase one of the project was completed two months behind schedule, we now have the data needed to begin phase two.
What do you think your reader's first question would be? The question that immediately pops to mind might be, "Why were you so late finishing phase one?"
That could be a large and difficult question to answer. It could lead you into a litany of explanations, accusations, justifications, apologies, and excuses for the delay that quickly fills up a full page. Is it really the most valuable question? After all, neither you nor your reader will benefit from an annotated list of all the obstacles that came between you and the completion of phase one. If you start with that, you will irritate the reader with all your self-justifying details while giving your report a negative cast by drawing attention to all the things that went wrong before.
Instead of going with the first question that occurs to you, stop to ask yourself what your reader most wants to know. In this case it might be, "When do you expect to complete the project (or, at least, phase two)?" Answering that question first will tell the reader what he or she wants to know right up front. It will give your report a positive, forward-looking approach. Finally, it will leave room for you to explain the reasons for the phase one delay further on, in one or two sentences. Once you have shown that you are on a planned, positive course, the reader will be more accepting of the previous problems that now appear as history.

Structure Your Answers
The best structure for answering your reader's probable questions is this:

Key Point + Backup

It gives the reader the answer immediately and then makes that answer credible by bolstering it with an example, an illustration, or an explanation.
This approach does not come naturally. Our tendency seems to be the reverse: Build up evidence and then present the conclusion. Although this progression makes sense in science and logic, it doesn't work well for business writing. Why not? Well, think of your own expectations as a reader: Do you want to know the answer to your question at the beginning or the end of the section?
To write effectively in business, we must remember to tell the reader the answer first and then explain the reasoning behind it.
In the example, you would begin your answer with a clear statement of when and how you hope to complete the project or its second phase. One or at most two sentences should suffice. Then you would follow with your reasons for this assertion.
Yes, in one sense this method is harder, because it forces you to make clear, committed statements. That's what you look for in the writing you receive, isn't it?
Try it, and, as always, please let us know how it works for you: perccom@aol.com.
Cheryl and Peter Reimold have been teaching communication skills to engineers, scientists, and business people for 20 years. Their firm, PERC Communications (+1 914 725 1024, perccom@aol.com), offers businesses consulting and writing services, as well as customized inhouse courses on writing, presentation skills, and on-the-job communication skills. Visit their Web site at http://www.allaboutcommunication.com.

The article in the Career Section "Tools" is gratefully reprinted with permission from the authors as well as permission from the IEEE Professional Communication Society Newsletter Editor. This article is reprinted from the May/June 2003 issue, Volume 47, Number 3, pages 10 & 14 of the IEEE PCS Newsletter.