How To Tailor You Writing To Serve Skimmers And Skeptics
In an ideal world, everyone who reads the stuff you write will go through it arduously. They’ll start it with an open mind, consider your ideas and even let you slide a couple of times if you failed to use a grammar check software.
For most of us, though, that just isn’t reality. Many of the people who will read your business report project proposal and sales letter will belong to one of two difficult groups of audiences to write for: skimmers and skeptics.
Skimmers
Some of your readers will be very busy people. This is especially true in today’s workplace, where the average employee receives tons of emails per day. Since they don’t have the luxury of time, they just skim through documents, checking the major points and noting important items.
If you expect skimmers to be among a good number of your readers, your best course of action is to do the following:
- Create a very descriptive headline
- State your main point right on the first paragraph, repeating it at the end
- Use bullet points to list down items
- Highlight important dates, figures and statistics
Of course, this same style of writing should be good for the more thorough readers as well, so it’s a win-win.
Skeptics
Skeptics are a little more tricky, as you’ll need to flex your persuasion muscles a bit. This type of reader often begins perusing your material while in a mood of doubt and disdain – a bad combination. Since you can’t put a gun to their head to convince them of anything you write (such as the department prognosis based on your report, for instance), your best bet is to make the most compelling argument possible. For skeptics, in particular, your best avenue of persuasion is tons of facts – use details and hard evidence to quell their apprehensions.