To have clear writing, always give the summarizing idea first, before the individual ideas that are being summarized. This helps with clarity because you are providing the connection between the ideas upfront so the reader doesn’t need to make their own association which leads to confusion.
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Every Paragraph Should Have a BLUF
The first sentence of every paragraph should be a BLUF. Readers can see the point right away without having to read through the entire paragraph. Readers don’t need to piece together the meaning themselves.
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Stands for ‘below the line up front’ as a way leading with the conclusion from a memo. This helps save the reader time when sending a communication to a wider distribution and raises ambient knowledge of the organization.
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Reading Is the Transformation of a Linked List of Ideas into a Tree
We can only read one sentence at a time, but the resulting information received is tree-shaped. This presents a challenge to the writer to ensure the transformation matches the intended tree structure otherwise the reader may misinterpret the ideas shared. That’s why organizing ideas is important and explaining the connections between ideas so the reader doesn’t have to.
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Ideas to Support a Key Line Should Be Inductive or Deductive
When forming a horizontal relationship between ideas (e.g. supporting sentences of a summary statement), they should form an inductive or deductive argument. This makes the connection of ideas more clear to the reader and improves overall reader understanding.
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Writing a Message Should Be Brief and Contain a Single Idea
Effective writing that gets a response is written for busy people. The message should be constrained to a single idea. The message should be brief, reducing as many words as possible.