Module 2
Planning and Drafting Correspondence

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Extending the Dialogue

The dialogue with the reader does not work to identify the main message only; you can also use it to plan your entire document. You will find that a good main message directs the next questions in the dialogue. For example, suppose you are writing an e-mail message in response to a request about your training needs for the next year. If your main message is “I need training in French and Excel over the next year,” you can expect your reader to want to know more about why you have chosen these two subjects. Your answers to these next questions, in turn, will form the body of your message. Have a look at how these questions would appear in a dialogue with the reader.

The Dialogue with Further Questions

1. Focus My Thoughts

Purpose
(Why am I writing?)

To [recommend, request, inform, or other verb]…

Training Needs (responsive)

To respond to the reader’s original request (i.e., to outline what training you need over the next year)

E-mail Overload Problems (initiative)

To advise staff to archive e-mail messages to avoid e-mail overload problems

2. Plan the Document

Reader’s Main Question
What is this about?

Your Answer
(This sentence summarizes what you are recommending, requesting, or informing the reader of; it should reflect the purpose, but not necessarily in the same words. In a responsive document, it responds to the reader’s original request.)

Training Needs: What is your response to my original request? (What training do you need over the next year?) (responsive)

Training Needs Main Message:
I need training in French and Excel over the next year.

 

Email Overload: What is this about? (What are you recommending, requesting, or informing me of?) (initiative)

 

Email Overload Main Message:
E-mail overload is creating server problems in the Bank, so we are asking staff to archive older messages.

Reader’s Next Questions

Answers

Answers

Training Needs

  1. Why do you need training in French?
  2. Why do you need training in Excel?

(The reader will likely have other questions as well. But these are the two that arise directly from the main message.)

(Answers here respond to the next questions and develop the next level of detail in your document.)

 

E-mail Overload

  1. What is the nature of the server problems?
  2. How do I archive older messages?