Template:Ambox/doc

Research, organize, compose

Research
In Mary Ellen Guffey’s 3-x-3 writing process, researching, organizing and composing is the second phase of this process. The first step of this phase is research. The two main research methods are formal research and informal research. Formal research is most commonly secondary research that can be done by searching for specific information about someone or something on the internet or looking for facts in books, magazines, newspapers or journals. Informal research is primary research that can be done by going right to the source of the information and conducting an interview or survey. Once you have gathered all the information needed through these research methods, you must start generating ideas from what you have learned through brainstorming and organizing them into a plan of what you want to write.

Organize
In the organization stage, for simple messages, you can simply list the topics that need to be discussed in your work but for more complex messages, an outline to organize the data is required. Next, you must decide which is the best way to present the message depending on if the audience is receptive or unreceptive. A direct pattern for presenting a message to a receptive audience is by putting the purpose of your message in the first couple of sentences because you can anticipate their reaction. This allows the reader to be left pleased, mildly interested or at least neutral. An indirect pattern for presenting a message to an unreceptive audience is when you reveal the message only after you have offered justification and reason. This pattern can expect an audience to be displeased or even hostile as it is often works well with bad news.

Compose
After research and organization stage is complete, it is finally time to start composing. When deciding on sentence length, make sure that most sentences are short and concise as they are effective and stress important ideas. Take out conjunctions such as and, but and however to break up longer sentences if need be. However, make sure there is a balance between long and short sentences to keep the audience interested. Some techniques to emphasize important ideas is underscoring, italicizing, boldfacing, use vivid words or making sure the important idea is the sentence subject. When it comes to drafting meaningful paragraphs, there are three different ways - direct paragraph plan, pivoting paragraph plan and indirect paragraph plan. In the direct paragraph plan, paragraphs begin with a main sentence followed by supporting sentences. It is used to classify, illustrate or describe because it is clear and easy to tell what the message is right from the beginning. The pivoting paragraph plan, that is used for compare and contrast, starts with a limiting sentence that is a contrasting or negative idea followed by the main sentence. Finally, the indirect paragraph plan is used to explain and persuade and start with the supporting sentences and end with the main sentence. Make sure that all the ideas in the paragraphs are logical and linked by the main key idea. Also, ensure that all sentences are necessary to strengthen your message in the paragraph because business writers recognize the value of short paragraphs.