WRITING RHETORICAL PLANS

Business writing is a decision-making activity. Expert business writers make rhetorical plans– before beginning to write their documents. In these plans, they determine what purpose their document will serve, who will read the document, how these people will read and use their document, and what they, as writers, will do to improve the effectiveness of their document. For the proposal and report assignments in this course, you will be required to write a rhetorical plan before you write a first draft.

DIRECTIONS:

Simply print out the form provided below, and use it to complete your rhetorical plans. You may fill out the plan by hand, but please print legibly. Save these plans as you will be required to submit them for evaluation in your portfolio at the end of this term.

1. Purpose: What is the purpose of the document I need to write? In other words, what purpose or purposes will the document serve for the organization?

 

2. Audience Analysis:

  • Who will primarily read this document?

  • What do they care about related to this document?

 

  • What kinds of evidence, ways of reasoning, values, or emotional appeals will convince these readers?

 

 

  • Who are potential secondary audiences? Do I need to adjust the writing to meet their needs, interests, and expectations? If so, how?

 

 

  • How will the primary readers use this document? How do these uses help me decide what to do as a writer?

 

 

  • How will readers read this document? Will they read all of it or only parts? What parts are the most important for convincing readers?

 

 

 

3. Outcomes: What outcomes do I want this document to produce in the organization?

 

 

4. Genre Conventions: What conventions govern the format and structure of this document? In other words, how do people within this organization expect this document to be formatted and structured?

 

 

5. Content: What kinds of content do readers expect to find in this kind of document? What can I include (or exclude) to make this document more convincing to readers?

 

 

 

6. Credibility: How can I use transitional sentences and passages to link the different parts of this document together so they work together to build a persuasive case? What can I do to make sure that my readers believe and act on this document?

 

 

7. Design: What design features can I incorporate into the document to make it easier for readers to read and more visually appealing?

 

 

8. Style: What stylistic choices can I make to improve the readability and persuasiveness of this document?

 

 

9. Tone: What tone do I want to establish in this document and what word choices will establish this tone? What word choices or phrases do I need to avoid?

 

10. Editing and Proofreading: What level of clarity and correctness do the readers of this document expect, and how can I insure this document will meet those standards?