Chapter 15 | Quotes From Pages 127-140 1.The great majority of ideas in business writing are statements of actions—i.e., statements described by such plural nouns as steps, recommendations, objectives, or changes. 2.But stating, relating, and summarizing action ideas to tell people clearly how to do something or how something works is the hardest thinking I know. 3.Thus, if you make a list of the actions you think you should take to achieve some objective, you can't judge whether you have left any out until you state the effect they are meant to achieve. 4.The specificity of the statement permits you to judge whether the steps you have grouped together underneath
would in fact bring about the end result. 5.I can't emphasize too strongly the necessity of wording action ideas to reflect an end product. 6.Unless you force this discipline on your wording, you simply cannot make an objective judgment that you have included in your steps all that should be there. 7.The easiest way to clarify your thinking when dealing with action ideas is to visualize yourself actually taking the action, and word the step in terms of the end product you will have in your hand when you finish. 8.You may have noted in Exhibit 29 that an action can serve as both a cause and an effect in a structure. 9.Now not only can you quickly grasp what the program involves, you can also make objective judgments about whether you have left any points out. 10.It demands hard thinking. But the alternative is really so unpleasant for the reader that you will want to make the effort to follow the steps we have been discussing.