 | Collect your thoughts and facts on a whiteboard. Use one "item"
for each item of information. Use links (possibly of different types) to
show how the items are connected. |
| Move the items around so that their position has some relevance. |
| Sort the items so that they form the introduction, body and conclusion of
your text. |
| Move the items so that they are in the right order within the 3 blocks. |
| At each step you can add more items. It's usual to notice gaps in your
knowledge or argumentation at this stage. You can research and add the
missing data. |
| Once you have finished this brainstorm, it's easy to reproduce your
information in text form. |
| In some cases your readers will be happier with the diagram than with the
text. Information is not linear, but your text is. So something got lost in
the last step. Try sending the diagram to your "readers" and wait
for their reaction. If they understand your diagram better than a text, you
have the added advantage of saving yourself the trouble of "pressing"
future reports into a text. Your readers save time and effort because they
don't have to translate your text back into the network of data it
intrinsically is. Your communication would have improved and it required
less effort! |
