Which of the following is an advantage of using the three-step writing process when creating reports?

Table of Contents Show

What Is the Three-Step Writing Process?
#1 Planning the Report
#2 Drafting the Report
#3 Completing the Report
Information and Understanding Need Each Other
Three-Step Writing Process
Three-Step Writing Process Details

Information is crucial to a company’s success. When it is masterfully disseminated across all levels of the business and communicated to decision-makers effectively, it can guarantee countless opportunities for the industry to thrive and highlight potential risks to avoid as early as possible. In fact, information has become the cornerstone of success. Business communication and collaboration software, such as Slack, Monday, and Microsoft Teams, to name a few, have continued to snowball in this new normal where everybody is working remotely.

However, many business startups and small and medium enterprises that have yet to experience success fail to realize the significance of handling and communicating business information well, putting much of the data at the scrutiny of noise and misunderstanding. To help alleviate this alarming issue and raise awareness on the importance of communicating well-thought business messages, we’ll be going over the three-step writing process and how it can improve analytical reports.

What Is the Three-Step Writing Process?

As the name suggests, the three-step writing process is a writing technique that improves the brevity, depth, and effectiveness of a written work to convey a thought, idea, or message. These three steps are planning, drafting, and completing. This approach is simple yet largely misplaced by many businesses, from their memorandums to their infomercials. In analytical reports, the three-step writing process can increase the effectiveness of assessing opportunities, solving problems, and supporting decisions through conciseness and understandability.

#1 Planning the Report

Planning always sets the stage and foundation for the whole process, and the same success principle applies to writing effective analytical reports for a business. One must always begin by consolidating all the reliable and relevant pieces of information, understanding the nuances, and outlining the approach before committing to a decision. Careful and strategic planning will make the analytical report develop more smoothly.

Gather and Organize Relevant Information: For any business report, you need to gather and organize all the relevant information to support your case. Remember, the relevance of information is only as good as its timeliness and reliability, so always keep these criteria in mind. For example, if you were to create an analytical report supporting the decision for increased cybersecurity, an excellent article to cite would be Facebook’s recent leakage of sensitive user data.
Appropriate the Message for the Audience: Another common issue experienced by many businesses, small and big companies alike, is the lack of appropriating the message to suit the audience. In many cases, analytical reports often use too many technical terms. While businesses expect that users of the information will have a level of understanding of these terms, too much technicality diminishes the understandability of the message. Therefore, always take into account the audience profile and appropriate the message to their understanding. Relevant, timely, and reliable information will still be for naught if it is misunderstood.

#2 Drafting the Report

After planning the report, you can immediately proceed with drafting the report to get a rough idea of how it will look and whether its readability matches up with the information it’s trying to communicate. As a good rule of thumb, we always recommend comprehensiveness and conciseness in any business message. You want to cover all points but not come off as wordy and all over the place. It also helps if the report content summarizes all the main points and highlights the necessary action items.

Data Visualization: Data visualization through infographics and line charts is an excellent way to make comprehensive information much more understandable and less cluttered in an analytical report. For example, if you were to assess the opportunity of hiring an eCommerce SEO agency to increase web traffic and conversion rates, comparative bar charts that show the success rate behind these services can help streamline the decision-making process.

#3 Completing the Report

For the final step, you want to go over the entire analytical report once more before you can consider it finished and complete. Reviewing the report content can help identify trouble areas and highlight pieces of information that might be subject to a misunderstanding once presented. For example, you may have overlooked supplementary elements, such as the appendices and bibliography, which may hurt the credibility of the analytical report. Plus, reviewing the report will give you ample time to revise and improve the report altogether.

Information and Understanding Need Each Other

Overall, information and understanding need each other, and information about the business is only good if the users of the information understand it. To ensure success, companies must improve their business messages, such as analytical reports, with the help of the three-step writing process. In time, the benefits of adhering to these guidelines will return tenfold.

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Audio Version — 4:09

Effective business writing is essential to a company because it creates efficient communication that leads to:

Increased productivity
Faster problem solving
More decisive decision-making
Increased profits

It also helps boost the organization’s credibility.

To some professionals, writing is a daunting task. So much so that they have a fear of penning ink on paper and often miss deadlines or poorly communicating company or marketing information. The writers writing paralysis ends up wasting company resources such as time and money. The truth is, writing, like any other skill, takes practice to master.

Business writing skills are a necessary skill-set for marketers to master. As part of the job, a marketing professional must write advertising copy, press releases, sales copy, internal reports, social media postings, blog posts, and much more content.

The three-step writing process helps business writers, like marketing professionals, create compelling messages in any medium. It allows them to communicate their message effectively while meeting their target audience’s needs. The three-step process also ensures that writers make the best use of their time and the audience’s time. As the writer gets more practice with the three-step writing process, it becomes easier to write.

Below are the steps to the three-step writing process (For a visual representation, see the Three-Step Writing Process chart below.).

Three-Step Writing Process

Three-Step Writing Process Details

1. Planning

Analyze the Situation
Define the reason or purpose for writing and develop an audience profile.

Gather Information
Determine the needs of the audience and gather the information required to satisfy those needs.

Select the Right Delivery Vehicle
Determine the best medium (delivery vehicle) for communicating the message.

Organize the Information
Define the main communication idea and select a direct or an indirect approach. Outline the communication content.

2. Write

Adapt to the Audience

Connect with your audience by being sensitive to their needs and using a “you” attitude. (See explanation of the “you” attitude below.)

Build a strong relationship with the audience by establishing credibility and projecting your company’s brand image. Use a conversational tone, plain English, and an appropriate voice to deliver the message.

Compose the Message
Choose strong words that create useful sentences and coherent paragraphs.

3. Complete

Revise the Message
Evaluate the content and review it for readability. If required, edit the content and rewrite it for conciseness and clarity.

Produce the Message
Use useful design elements for a clean and professional layout.

Proofread the Message
Review the communication piece for errors in the layout. Check the spelling and mechanics as well.

Distribute the Message

Deliver the message using the chosen communication vehicle. Make sure that all documents and files successfully distributed are relevant to the communication item.

While writing may seem challenging at first, practicing often and implementing the three-step writing process will help improve writing skills. The more a business professional writes and uses the three-step process, the more automatic their writing becomes.

The “you” attitude is an audience-centered approach to communicating that involves understanding and respecting your audience and making every effort to get your message across in a meaningful way.

The “you” attitude contrasts messages in stark contrast to statements about “me.” The goal is to learn as much as possible about your audience. Learn things such as their biases, education, age, status, style, and personal and professional concerns. Using this information, you can satisfy their need through communication.