Providing your reader with context
Beginning writers spend most of their time thinking about how to put words together into a logical message. Their focus is on getting the words out, writing down words that reflect the ideas in their heads. They feel finished when they have put their idea on paper, just put it into writing. This is a lot of hard work. It is a challenge to find the right words, to put them in order, to write as fast as your mind, or slow down your thoughts to match your typing speed. Your thoughts and your hands are constantly out of sync. So it is a struggle just to write.
But more advanced writers, those who have achieved some level of comfort in getting the words out, have a different focus. When you can write more easily, you can stop thinking about communicating what you want to say and start thinking about how you can get your reader to understand. This is a shift in imagination. Instead of writing for yourself--writing down the thoughts in your head and feeling like you've accomplished something just when you can see them there on the page--you can start to write for someone else.
When you think about the reader, you can start to consider what is the best organizational strategy, how you should break up your paragraphs, what words and sentence structures you should use, how you can make sure that person completely understands your message.
One of the most frequently overlooked aspects of writing a message by my students is context. For example, if the assignment says, "You are writing a thank you note to your friend for picking you up from the airport," many students would write something like this:
Thanks! It meant a lot that you would take the time to get me. Let me know if there's anything I can do for you.
This message only communicates from the writer's point of view, the person who already knows what the assignment is and why they are writing. But this message fails to communicate to the reader the context for this message. If the writer sends this message two weeks after the ride to the airport, then the reader may not remember or may think the writer is referring to something else. The message is unclear for the reader.
Part of the problem for students is that they frequently imagine the "reader" to be equivalent to "the instructor," which both is and is not true. They are not writing their message to their instructor, but the instructor will be reading it. In order to successfully craft the message, students (and writers) have to consider who they are writing to more than who they are writing for.
In another examples, I asked students to write a short report for their boss explaining how they reached a decision. The assignment includes identifying the options, analyzing them to show how they eliminated possibilities and narrowed the field, and then explaining the benefits of their proposed selection. They could be writing this report about anything, but let's say that it's about new office chairs.
Most students respond with something like this:
There are lots of different kinds of chairs to choose from. I looked at 12 online, and I think the FA45 looks great. We should get those.
In the most basic terms, these two sentences fulfill the assignment, but they are not successful because they don't provide enough information for the boss to recognize whether the decision is a good one or not. First of all, what if the boss asked for a report on chairs one month ago. Are chairs the only thing the boss is thinking about? No, so the beginning of the email needs to provide context: why are you writing this report, how can you remind the boss about this project? Then, there needs to be context for the research: where did you look? what comparisons did you make? what were the important factors you were considering? how did you get from 12 chairs to one? why do you think this one chair is the one we should buy?
A message without context isn't just lacking information, it's lacking meaning to the reader. Your reader isn't reminded of why you are writing, what the goal is, or what kind of response is desired. Context is the information that makes a message meaningful to a reader.
So, a revised message with context might go like this:
A month ago, you mentioned that you were thinking about purchasing new office chairs. We talked about ergonomics, mobility, and reasonable pricing. With that in mind, I looked at office chairs from x, y, and z companies. Each company offered four different kinds of ergonomic chairs, Out of those, five of them had the mobility options we were looking for in terms of rolling wheels, swivel components, movable armrests, and height adjustments. Three of them are less than $200 per chair, which meets our budget requirements. I went to companies x and y to test these three chairs, and I found the FA45 to be the most comfortable. If we are going to move forward with new office chairs, I recommend we purchase the FA45. Please let me know if you would like me to order the new chairs.
Yes, this email is longer and it does provide a lot of information, but what it really does is provide the reader with context. The reader now understands what is being discussed, how the writer proceeded based on earlier discussions, and what the writer wants from the reader. The message doesn't just get the words out, it considers how the reader is going to think about the message and anticipates the reader's needs. That is what the advanced writer focuses on.
Moving from just getting the words out to thinking about the reader is challenging, but this work can be done in steps. First, get the ideas on the page. Then, go back and revise the message thinking about the reader's perspective. Add context: why are you writing, how can you remind the reader of that reason, what does the reader need to know in order to understand or follow the content of your message, what information would help the reader, what do you want from the reader at the end of the message?
Once you have provided the reader with context, proofread and edit the message so that it represents you as a credible writer.