For many professionals, the thought of writing a business document generates anxiety and procrastination. If you are among these people, you're not alone. Becoming anxious or procrastinating at the thought of expressing yourself in a permanent medium is quite natural, for several reasons.

First, you may not have the confidence to write well because when you were in school, the importance of expressing ideas often got lost in the pursuit of proper grammar or style requirements. Remember the English teacher who asked you to write a five-paragraph essay with five sentences in each paragraph? Or the college professor who asked you for a 15-page paper? Although these objectives served a purpose, they did little to distinguish the importance of the thinking behind the writing.

Second, you may not be clear about precisely why you need to write a certain document or specifically what you need to say in it. This is a common stumbling block among our Effective Business Writing workshop participants. The anxiety sets in for them because they're trying to write too soon—they've skipped the first, most important step, namely clarifying their thinking.

Third, you may fear that by putting words to paper your flaws as a writer will be exposed to the world, including your bosses and colleagues. Speaking in public may be the number one fear among professionals, but writing surely is a close second. The situations are strikingly similar; once your written document has been distributed, you are, in a sense, speaking to the recipients.

The 10 Minute Guide to Effective Business Writing breaks down the writing process into manageable steps and provides the framework to structure your document and clarify your thinking. By treating the content and thinking behind a document separately from its style and grammar, the process eliminates anxiety, enabling you to write without fear.

Poorly written documents can cloud issues and distract people's thinking. If you as the writer don't clearly articulate a point of view, the reader will have a hard time not only sorting through what's being said, but also under standing the issue in the way you'd like for him to.

Well-written documents clarify issues, assist people's thinking, and ultimately build consensus. When you're able to focus the reader's thinking on the key issues, and concisely lay out why your point of view is a valid one, you've assumed a leadership role. In addition, you've created the framework for how the issue will be discussed.

The foundation of effective business writing is clear thinking. Grammar and style matter, but critical thinking is even more important.

Consider the following example. While these two memos are on the same subject, one demonstrates clear thinking and the other doesn't. Which would you rather read? Which would you rather send? Most important, which do you believe would be more likely to be acted on?

In the preceding examples, the writer wants something—more computing capability for the sales force—and sees a way to acquire it: Reallocate the computers currently used by company secretaries. In the first example, however, the writer uses a "stream of consciousness" style to describe the situation, forcing the reader to read through the entire document to figure out what the writer wants and why.

In the second example, the writer has thought about what she is asking for, what information the reader needs to make the decision, and what steps must be taken to make the plan happen. The second example starts by clearly stating the purpose of the document ("This recommends replacing the computers …"), provides evidence that the plan will work ("The MIS Department agrees …"), and states the benefits of the plan ("… saving the company over $150,000"). Finally, the writer describes what will happen next ("… I will work with the MIS department manager to implement the changes …").

This clearly laid-out, step-by-step explanation helps the reader to easily understand what's being asked for and why, making it much easier to agree to the request—and not incidentally, be impressed with the writer's depth and clarity of thinking.

Writing effectively for business is something that can be easily learned. We've seen in our Effective Business Writing workshops that when people focus on the thinking first, and are given a simple framework in which to do so, they immediately become more effective writers.

The framework, which this book details, enables you to break down the writing process into a number of manageable pieces—setting your objective, or purpose, for writing; framing your thinking by organizing your thoughts into discrete "chunks" corresponding to specific sections of the document; and then easily assembling the pieces into an effective business document.