Truth 15. To succeed, cover your ground and remember “the ask”

With most writing situations, the middle section is the nitty-gritty, descriptive information. It tells the reader how to do something, gives details for an event, specifies the items to be covered in an assignment, provides technical specifications, spells out the reasoning behind a decision, or whatever else is necessary.

Your lead will have set up the reader by defining the subject, setting the tone, and establishing a “what’s in it for me?” appeal. It might be only a sentence long, as in many e-mails, or it could be several paragraphs of a long document.

Whatever the medium, the middle needs to follow through and cover your content list in the logical order you figured out earlier. It’s just a matter of getting the content down on “paper.”

For example, if you’re making an assignment to someone who reports to you, the middle of the message would detail what the assignment consists of. You could do that as a bulleted list or as a narrative, making sure your instructions are clear if the person is new on the job or hasn’t done this type of work before.

So, Mike, I’m asking you to analyze the new spare parts program for our widget shipments. We need you to determine whether the program is working properly, whether the parts are arriving on schedule, and whether they are in good condition when they arrive.

Please send me a report detailing your findings in each of these areas. If you think it would be helpful to include a graph or chart to show your results visually, please append it. If you need one of the accountants to work with you, feel free to use my name when you ask for help.

The lead paragraph would have stated the assignment and deadline, and any context needed to do the job well. The closing paragraph might repeat the deadline and any contact information Mike might need.

If you’re writing a response to a customer complaint—for example, a letter complaining that a mail-order dress didn’t fit—you’d use the opening paragraph to say something positive (such as, “We are delighted that you’ve been a customer of X brands for three years, and that you chose Style Y, which we just introduced this season.”). Then you’d use the middle of your message to explain nicely why the error may have happened, because, for example, this style fits differently.

Write the middle quickly—Our recommendation is to write the middle quickly: Get it all down and then go back and edit. That way you can review for the right amount of information: what’s not needed, what’s missing. You can improve clarity and conciseness; find better words and linkages where the expression is awkward or confusing; and, of course, fix mistakes.

As far as substance goes, you’ve already done all that prep work in thinking about goals, audience, and content, and part of the payoff now is that it’s relatively easy to write the middle.

Depending on the length and nature of your document, you can employ various kinds of graphic devices to help organize your informational material, break it up, and make it accessible: subheads, bold lead-ins, bullets, numbers, and more.

Every message should end well—Many times, the conclusion needs to bring home the action you’re requesting. In sales terms, it’s “the ask.” And remarkably, sales trainers find that in many cases, salespeople fail to ask for the business. Let’s consider how the messages presented as examples in preceding sections should end.

The training seminar invitation

Please mark your calendar and e-mail me back by October 30 so we can reserve a seat for you.

The “share a good idea” memo

March 1 is the deadline to receive your suggestions—send as many entries as you want. We’ll read them all and present the best on the 18th, crediting the contributor, along with awarding the prize. Good luck!

The “here’s a new account for you” e-mail

Congratulations, Joe, I know you’ll do a great job. Give me a call this week and we’ll talk about any questions you may have.

The assignment given to Mike

The best person in Accounting to talk to is Meg White, who’s familiar with the project. And of course, call me with any questions or problems.

I look forward to having the report in hand no later than April 10.

The customer complaint letter (in this case, you need to come to a resolution)

I’m sorry you were disappointed with how the dress fit, and we are happy to issue a full refund on receipt. In future issues of the catalog, we will take care to clarify how this particular model is sized. Thank you again for being our customer.

The ending gives you a chance to reinforce what you’re trying to get across—an apology and commitment to solving the problem in the case of the customer complaint, for example, or a motivational feeling in the case of Mike’s assignment. At the same time, you should state or restate the need for a response if appropriate.

The conclusion closes the circle: The message has been set up to engage the audience (lead), deliver the needed substance (middle), and clearly conclude (end).

Better to ask twice—A word of caution: If “the ask” is a request for the recipient to take an action, such as to “e-mail me back by October 30 so we can reserve a seat for you,” it’s usually better not to hold this information for last.

Putting “the bottom line on top” makes more sense in these days when everyone is too rushed to read the whole memo. The e-mail recipient may never get to the end, so anything vitally important belongs in the lead. Use the ending sentence or paragraph to reinforce the thought. For example, you can start with “Reserve a seat by October 30 for…,” and your close can be “I look forward to hearing from you by October 30.”