Module 2a — Office
Correspondence
and Records
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Planning your message
Time is precious at the ILO. You probably signed up for this course partly to discover ways to save time in writing. That is a laudable goal and one that this course hopes to help you achieve. The first step may seem counter-intuitive; one of the best ways to save time for you as a writer and for your readers is to pause before you write.
Pause? But you are in a hurry!
Before you decide this is impossible, consider the time cost in dashing off that email or drafting a letter without giving your document proper consideration. A hastily written message can create more work than was ever intended. Even basic proofreading errors can create misunderstanding or confusion about your message, causing your reader to reply for more information or worse, get the wrong idea about your objective. Before you know it the haste you made in writing the message is now costing you more time than you saved by not planning.
Planning saves you time by:
- achieving your statement of purpose
- removing and avoiding barriers for your reader
- increasing efficiency by saving your reader’s time
Following are some strategies for meeting these goals.