Write to Inspire Action – 10 Principles

Writing well involves so much more than putting words to paper. People write to communicate ideas and emotions to challenge and motivate people to action, to reinforce common beliefs or deconstruct perceptions. The intentions one brings to writing can be as varied as the number of words in a dictionary.

Business writing is no less a challenge than writing a piece of fiction or an article for a newspaper. In all cases, the writer aspires to write clearly, enhance understanding, inspire action, and lead the reader to a desired conclusion or reaction.

For example, writers of training materials want readers to learn how to do something the right way or the best way or the quickest way. The goal (i.e. the conclusion) is that the trainee will be able to perform the function or tasks that the training materials were created for in the first place.  The wrong words, bad organization, or incomplete messaging will result in poor training.

Writing marketing and communications copy for a website involves a similar process. The writer wants to inform people about the business, articulate the benefits of a product or service, aptly describe the problem that a product can remedy, and lead the reader to a desired conclusion, which in this example is to purchase the product or service or at least inquire about things further.