Persuasive Business Proposals: Writing to Win More Customers, Clients, and Contracts

Information

When people present facts that other people need to do their jobs, they’re writing to inform. The goal of informative writing is to be concise and accurate. The focus should be on transferring the information quickly and easily. The communication fails if the reader doesn’t understand the facts or, worse yet, misunderstands them.

The best way to communicate informatively is to use the pattern taught in journalism classes: the funnel. (See Figure 4-2.) Start with the fact or set of facts that is most important to the reader. In journalism, that’s often who, what, when, where, why, and how? Then go to the next most important fact. Then the third level of importance. The fourth, the fifth, and so on, until there is nothing left to say. ...