No one has time to plan messages anymore, so when you need to create one it is best to simply dive right in and begin writing.

When allocating your time among the three stages of the writing process, you should use about a fourth of the time for planning, half the time for writing, and a quarter of the time for completing.

All business messages have both a general purpose and a specific purpose.

The three general purposes of business messages are to inform, to persuade, and to collaborate.

Once you have established your purpose, it's best to consider whether it is worth pursuing at this time.

When analyzing your audience, you should ignore everyone except the key decision makers.

As long as your message is clear, the size of your audience should not affect your approach.

One effective informal method for learning more about your audience members' information needs is to ask them directly for input.

In the planning stage of an important business report, you should never engage in free writing, since doing so will only confuse you.

When you get a vague request for information, the best way to handle it is to provide all the information you can and allow the audience members to select what is useful to them.

Skilled communicators include only the information that their audience has specifically requested.

A helpful way to test the thoroughness of your message is to use the journalistic approach: asking yourself whether you have covered the who, what, where, when, why, and how.

Accuracy of information is less important in business communication than in other types of communication–everyone is busy, and mistakes are simply unavoidable.

Online reference materials generally require more careful evaluation than other types.

Messages can be unethical simply because certain details have not been included.

As long as your message is clear and interesting, the medium you choose doesn't really matter.

Face-to-face communication is the richest medium.

Poorly organized messages are unlikely to be effective, regardless of their content.

"Latest Investment Performance" is an example of a message topic, whereas "Poor Investment Performance Continues" is an example of a main idea.

The best time to choose between the direct and indirect approach for organizing messages is before you've decided on the main idea.