Writing Confidence at Work, Part 6: Attitude

This final segment on writing confidence at work focuses on attitude. And why not? Confidence is an attitude, or an awareness, about one's abilities to perform successfully. When we approach any task without that requisite confidence to perform it well, it shows to everyone in our presence. Embarrassment is not even half of it. No one wants to appear incompetent, and no one wants to mess up a job because of their self-perceived shortcomings. Pretty unnerving.

Now it's one thing to say, "I write well" and another thing to write well. But experience tells me that for a person of adequate self-awareness, saying it is a fine first step being it. This means that someone committing to that declaration will do everything they can to live up to that expectation. That's attitude with a capital A. 

To close this series, I'll list five ways to build confidence:

1. Learn from the masters. Study the sentences of authors you respect. For example, the highly regarded Nobel Prize laureate T. S. Eliot wrote this sentence in a 1929 essay on Dante in his Selected Essays: "For the science or art of writing verse, one has learned from Inferno that the greatest poetry can be written with the greatest economy of words, and with the greatest austerity in use of metaphor, simile, verbal beauty, and elegance." We need to be forgiving of 96-year-old sentences, as writing style changes with the times just as fashion does. While today most of us would write just the art of writing and drop science, by this point in the essay, Eliot has implied how he distinguishes between science and art. As for those final four descriptors, I immediately understand metaphor, simile, and elegance but not verbal beauty, which seems like a redundant rendering of elegance. Then I think of whether an expression can be verbally beautiful and not elegant and vice-versa. Regardless of how I, the reader, resolve this matter, the key point is that I am thinking like a writer who is trying to apply such phrasings to my own compositions as much as I am a reader who is simply trying to be educated or entertained.  
2. Practice. Good writers are always writing or thinking of writing. Bring a notebook with you wherever you go. You'll never know when a good idea will pop into your head, so write them in your notebook as soon as they do and follow up on those notes when back at your writing spot.
3. Put things in perspective. Guess what? You'll mess up from time to time, no matter how good a writer you become. So what? You haven't died. Far worse things can happen. Just work through it. 
4. Know your developmental areas. Say your narrative flow is terrific but grammar knowledge is limited. Do something about it. Enough online resources exist that can provide the necessary information to get you up to speed. 
5. Build on your strengths. Read number 4 above and put two tips into practice. First, if your narrative flow is strong but your grammar weak, then use that strength to sharpen the weakness. You can do that, for instance, by putting some of your best sentences through a grammar-check tool to see if your sentence is more effective than the suggested one. If you write a good sentence, chances are yours is better. Second, work on your narrative flow, your strength. All skills need constant updating and refining. This task should be easy because you already feel you have arrived in this department. Keep reading eclectically and incorporating. 

By exuding confidence as a writer at work, you will have greater authority and respect. Confidence is worth cultivating.

Writing Confidence at Work, Part 5: Standards

Think about what we call standards of good writing. What does that even mean? Does it mean write like me, your manager? Write like the company-provided templates? Write like the standard that we have created for you? 

Whatever it is, do not automatically consider it a standard of good writing. Writing style is arbitrary. I'd bet that you and I would disagree about what defines good writing style. Does James Baldwin have good writing style? Does Joan Didion? Lydia Davis? I would say yes. If you would say no to any of these three writers, then we would disagree about what constitutes good writing style. Yet these three writers have quite different approaches to style. 

Then how do we determine whose judgment of good writing style matters? By how much we respect that person's writing and that person's opinion. If we know they have set a standard that we can aspire to, then their opinion matters to us, for their influences have shaped their style. Those people whose writing style we respect most likely read a lot and learn from what they read. For this reason, I cannot stress enough the value of reading eclectically, something I have noted repeatedly on this blog. Through reading a broad range of writing styles, we discover our own standards and replicate them in our own writing assignments.

But remember: Standards are arbitrary, though excellent writers establish them, and those are the writers whose lead we should follow.

Writing Confidence at Work, Part 4: Efficiency

Writing efficiently means accomplishing the writing task with the least waste of time and effort. When we talk about good writers, we generally refer to their quality: the inventiveness of ideas, fluency of syntax, and precision of diction. We don't talk enough about efficient writers, but we should. To prove my point, let's do a thought experiment.

Let's say you manage two business analysts, both fast typists. Kerry is 35, a native-born English speaker with a business degree from the United States, and Kim, 35, learned English in America at 22 with a business degree from Colombia. Kerry consistently produces excellent reports and proposals but does so at half the speed of Kim, whose quality is weaker than Kerry's. Kim's reports are as comprehensive and organized as Kerry's, but the sentence structure and word choice are usually off. Which analyst would you choose to write a critical review in a flash for upper management? 

I would choose Kim. Kerry would get the job done flawlessly in four hours, and Kim with a bunch of linguistic errors in two hours. I would be able to fix Kim's flaws in 15 minutes and have an hour and forty-five minutes to spare for other business matters.

What is Kim's trick? Confidence. Having the right perspective about the writing process. Certainty that the draft will be good enough for review. Trust in the manager to improve it. Not stressing over the finished product. Understanding that writing quality is subjective. Now, if Kim were uncommitted to improving the quality, then I would eventually indicate this lapse on her performance evaluation and recommend that she improve her writing and her attitude. But speed is so important in businesses where people get hundreds of emails a day. I'll take Kim for any writing task knowing that she'll eventaually improve in her writing quality under my guidance. Kerry's problem, on the other hand, is psychological, and I am not a psychiatrist.

Efficiency is as valuable as effectiveness, and it starts with confidence.

Writing Confidence at Work, Part 3: Feedback

Q: Should you get feedback on your writing?

A: Yes. And you should too.

Q: When?

A: Always.

Q: What do you mean by always?

A: At every step of the writing process?

Q: What steps?

A: In step one, planning, when you're listing ideas to include in the document. Ask your manager and teammates, should I include just the problem or the impact, history, and cause of the problem? Just the solution or the options and benefits of the proposed option? You might be surprised by their answers. They might say, be sure to include the advantages and disadvantages of each option including your proposed one, and the methods you used in determining the options. Step two, drafting based on your plan, seems like a solitary activity, so why seek feedback? Won't that request slow you down? Maybe, but the rewards outweigh the minor drawback and will enable greater efficiency during future writing assignments. Ask, is a rough, single-paragraph draft all right for review? Should I use a preexisting template? If you get stuck in the middle of the draft because you can't think of an advantage of an unpreferred option, ask for someone's opinion. They might see something that was right under your nose all along. In step three, quality controlling, you revise, edit, and proofread. If unsure when revising, ask, did I leave anything out? Should I delete anything? Should I move any section higher or lower? When editing, ask, is that sentence overlong? Did I choose the right word here? Is a question better than a command there? Ask someone you trust to proofread for you. They are more likely to pick up your overlooked errors. Of course, offer yourself as a resource for those you ask when they write complex documents. 

Q: Why bother with all this feedback?

A: This give and take among staff go a long way toward making a proficient writing organization. It also helps writers understand that feedback is not a means of punishment or embarrassment, but a natural element of the writing process. Ultimately, it builds writing confidence.

Writing Confidence at Work, Part 2: Perfectionism

You want to write the perfect feasibility study, procedure, policy, or status report. You think you have but wonder whether it will get the expected reception. Maybe some of those on your distribution list won't even read it. Others might react indifferently to it. Maybe the most important readers will be downright critical of it. You review the document one more time and see why you have had those thoughts. You can make so many improvements, starting with the forcefulness of that opening sentence all the way to that last uncommitted paragraph.

You look at the draft an hour later. Now you believe the style is much improved, but another thought surfaces, You believe you've sacrificed style for substance. You go back to your original outline to find that, in fact, you have not removed any detail, but the most essential content is now buried in the middle of overlong paragraphs. You decide to rearrange information to make the key points more prominent. But now the internal logic of the piece has run amok.

You get the point. Perfectionism. You've got to stop somewhere; you've got to press send sooner or later. You can be sure that no matter how well you write a work-related document, you will find ways to improve it as soon as it drops into your files. You are constantly learning, the business is continually changing, and the industry is revolutionizing. Perfectionism is pointless.

Aiming for perfect is a noble goal, so long as you don't let such a pursuit take over your better senses. If you keep focusing on not hitting your mark, on failure, you might as well give up. Just produce. It's just a bunch of words.

Writing Confidence at Work, Part 1: Subjectivity

Possessing a confident mindset matters to writing success at work. Writing ranks as one of the most  common activities in most jobs, so we can't spend even a moment of our workday feeling uncertain about our writing capability or apprehensive about approaching a big writing task. That's why, starting with this installment, WORDS ON THE LINE starts this six-part series dedicated to the concept of writing confidence. 

Why do so many good writers, or at least adequate ones, lack confidence in their writing? I meet them all the time in professional workshops. They openly express their insecurities about the quality of their reports, analyses, or proposals. They wish they could compose faster, fluidly, painlessly. If writing amounts to most of their daily work, then their job is torture.

Confidence is an attitude. And attitudes are subjective, at least as others perceive us. One person's idea of an assertive tone is another's aggressive, one's straightforward another's rude, one's humility another's disengaged. It would help people who beat up themselves over their perceived inadequate writing skills to start with this mindset. Even the most celebrated writers in the world have received bad reviews.

Writing style is also as subjective as any art, song, cuisine, or fashion. We cannot deny that some documents are well written and other poorly written, but the same well written document for one reader might not do for another. Start with that thought the next time you write something important on the job.

One Way of Getting Started in Writing

To get started efficiently with any business message, writers need a single purpose. The document itself should have only one point, each paragraph that follows should have only one supporting point, and each sentence should have only one focusing point. Easier said than done? No. 

One approach to achieving this objective is to heed the advice of "A (Very) Simple Way to Improve Your Writing" by Mark Rennella in the Harvard Business Review. The article, an easy five-minute read, systematically breaks down the writing process for a practical method that successful writers already use, and developing writers should. WORDS ON THE LINE is loaded with nearly 20 years of similar suggestions.  

On Writing in Tough Conditions

Some of my clients write in difficult situations. They are investigators reporting from their car at the site of an accident during a snowstorm. They are analysts assessing a particular market by email on the trading floor during an especially hectic day. They are project managers creating spreadsheets of multi-million-dollar construction jobs from a cramped, dark trailer. (Some have even had to write messages to their base from an active battlefield.) Writing in tough conditions, such as during bad weather, in noisy environments, or with uncomfortable ergonomics, presents unique challenges that test a writer's creativity, focus, and resilience. These obstacles can make it difficult to maintain concentration, leading to frustration, slower progress, and reduced quality. However, mastering the ability to write in such conditions can foster stronger discipline and adaptability. Here's how.

Bad Weather

Bad weather, particularly heavy rain or cold, can impact both the mind and body, undermining comfort and concentration. The key is to create a mental and physical barriers to block external discomfort. Some ways:

• Prepare yourself. Make sure your devices are fully charged. Organize the writing space of your car, if that's where you work. Stay hydrated and bring comfort food.
• Create as a comfortable an environment as possible. Do whatever you can to optimize your writing space. Find as quiet and comfortable place as feasible. Use a blanket if outdoors or a space heater if indoors, to create an agreeable environment. 
• Find internal motivation. Focus on the content rather than the discomfort. Have the talking points squared away in your head and attack them one at a time.
• Use dictation tools. This method is particularly helpful for those who are not fast typists.
• Use video and photography. Taking videos or pictures onsite can help you recall content when you are writing or rewriting offsite in a more comfortable place. 
• Break up the writing process. Remind yourself that the particular report you're working on takes only x minutes to capture all the content. Plan and draft the report where you are and revise, edit, and proofread it when you are in a better physical space.
• Set small goals. Break your writing into short, timed sessions with reasonable word-count goals to maintain productivity despite external conditions.

Noisy Environments

Noisy environments, such as high-talk areas, traffic, or construction noise can be intrusive. While some writers are not bothered by background noise, others may struggle to concentrate. Three tips:

• Relocate. When possible, find a quieter place, such as a library or unused office space, to escape loud distractions. If you’re in a public space, choosing a quieter corner can make a difference.
• Turn off notifications. You may need to be available to all incoming messages, but you can delete the noisemaking part of notifications. The difference may be minor, but all these differences add up.
• Use noise-cancelling headphones. Investing in such devices can help you block loud or distracting sounds, allowing you to focus more easily.
• Ambient noise or music. If absolute silence isn't an option, try playing soft background music or ambient sounds (like  slow-paced instrumental music or nature sounds) to help you focus on the writing task instead of the unbearable surrounding noise.

Uncomfortable Ergonomics

Uncomfortable ergonomics, like poor seating or inadequate lighting, can cause physical strain, leading to discomfort or pain and reduced productivity. Some actions you can take:

• Check your posture. Get into the habit of telling yourself, "Body check," making sure you are not slouching or twisting in ways counterproductive to efficiency.  
• Invest in ergonomic equipment. Invest in an ergonomic chair, a laptop stand, or an external keyboard and mouse to ensure proper body support.
• Adjust your seat. Find the right height from your seat to the floor. This adjustment makes a big difference in fighting body fatigue and back or leg pain.
• Break regularly. Avoid sitting in an awkward position for long periods. Stand up, stretch, or walk around every half hour to relieve pressure on your body and refresh your mind.
• Improve lighting. Ensure your workspace is well lit, with natural light if possible, or use a desk lamp that mimics daylight to reduce strain on your eyes. Alleviating this physical challenge generates longer periods of concentration.

Though writing in tough conditions is demanding, it is usually not an unconquerable task. It builds endurance. Adapting to these circumstances develops stronger focus. Embracing these challenges can turn discomfort into an opportunity for growth. Implementing these practical solutions will improve your writing productivity, enhance your comfort, and increase your self-confidence in challenging conditions.

Not Sure What to Write About?

Writer's block is the most intimidating experience a writer may encounter. You sit at your computer for your assigned time to craft an article with a strict deadline, or a white paper your CEO wants on her desk tomorrow morning, or even a long overdue message to your mother. You stare blankly into the void. You start to tap your feet. Your head begins to rock in unison with the blinking cursor. Not a word appears. Then come the judgments: You've lost your spark. The muse is hiding out on you. You just don't have what it takes. You convince yourself you can't be blamed because moments ago you put your rowdy, exhausting children to bed. Or those long work hours are taking their toll on you. Maybe you shouldn't have had that drink. That big meal is giving you heartburn. Damn that buzz from the refrigerator. You can't get out of your head that person who has nothing to do with what you're trying to write. Twenty minutes have passed. Nothing.

Luckily, writers have numerous tricks to break writer's block. Whether you're a novelist crafting a thousand-page saga, a technical writer composing specifications and instructions, or an administrative staffer responding to hundreds of emails daily, you can employ one or more of the dozen tips I listed in a 12-part series on this blog five years ago. The series, "Breaking Writer's Block," leads off with my number 1 suggestion, which I have turned to countless times with invariable success: read. Besides being an indispensable means of self-educating, reading can also inspire, triggering a writing urge.

And here's a thirteenth recommendation, courtesy of Natalie Proulx writing for the New York Times in an article "310 Prompts for Argumentative Writing." Proulx's point is that responding to the 310 questions posed in the article on topics ranging from sports and the arts to parenting and school can get students from middle school to college started on writing assignments. While you may think that the questions listed in the article are irrelevant to the writing you do, I ask you to think again. Many of those questions are relevant to all of us, and you can modify those that do not suit you. The key is this: Anything that can get your fingers moving as a writer is worth examining. 

Linking Writing Theory and Practice

Since I am a big proponent of using transitions sensibly, I am sharing an interesting and useful teaching aid, "Linking Theory and Practice" from Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia. The two-page handout takes no more than five minutes to read but days to absorb. 

My intention of presenting this tool is to orient writers not only to the links between writing theory and practice but to employ linking ideas in their own writing. I have long taught that we writers need to stop thinking of transitions as simply words (and, but, therefore) or phrases (as a result, in effect, in the meantime), but also as sentences, paragraphs, and documents. The writer of this resource evidently supports my position.

New Year's Resolutions: A Look Back and Ahead

I have written on new year's resolutions before, once suggesting that we can resolve to change a behavior on any day. Whether our goals are related to health, education, work, communication, travel, philanthropy, or relationships, we need not wait until the clock strikes midnight on January 1. Nor should we get down  on ourselves for "breaking" a resolution. Achieving a goal for the most part is better than not meeting it at all. 

A key to life need not be to hit every mark we set, but each mark must evolve from our experiences. Cases in point: Muhammad Ali lost the Fight of the Century in 1971. In 1985, Apple's Steve Jobs lost his job in the company he created. Barack Obama suffered a landslide loss in a Democratic primary bid for Congress in 2000. In all three cases, these men came back to reach even greater heights. 

Success is impossible without some sort of failure along the way. This truth tells us that achieving resolutions may have setbacks, but these failures should not define us. They should teach us, embolden us. So get to work on those writing resolutions, and work from the premise that failure is inevitable but instructive. 

Free Article on Writing Effectively and Efficiently

An article I wrote for the science community, “Crafting Articles: Guidance to Authors for ACS Chemical Health & Safety,” is for a limited time freely available online. 

The publisher awarded "Crafting Articles" Editor's Choice designation because of the value it offers writers hoping to publish their work in ACS Chemical Health & Safety. The article discusses the challenges of professional and techniques for managing those issues. It covers the writing process as well as best practices throughout the rewriting phase, when we revise, edit, and proofread. And it concludes with ways to continually sharpen one's writing skills.      

The tips in this article are useful for any type of business or technical writer. If you know someone who can benefit from the reading, please pass it on to them as well.

A Focused Reminder about Employing a Successful Writing Process

This blog has covered various aspects of the writing process many times over the past 18 years. (Click here to read them.) Many of those posts are covered well in Mark Rennella's "A (Very) Simple Way to Improve Your Writing" in the Harvard Business Review (January 31, 2022). It's the sort of article that will take you only 10 minutes to read but the rest of your life to practice. Happy learning!

Using the Writing Process Effectively, Part 7: Writing Smart

Now I've covered the three steps of the writing process: Planning, Drafting, and Quality controlling. Remembering them is easy if you think Pretty Darn Quick (PDQ)—your goal for writing efficiently—and knowing when to use the complete writing process will increase your efficiency. 

Writing at work falls into three levels of complexity: routine, regulated, and reflective.

1. Routine – This writing requires little or no prompting for the writer to compose the message; it is generally brief and a part of the writer’s routine work. Examples of routine writing might be regular reminders, requests, and responses. In routine writing, we generally use just the drafting step of the writing process.

2. Regulated – This writing is more complex and detailed than routine writing; however, the writer can access established templates and retrieve the content from memory or other sources. Examples might be meeting minutes, employee appraisals, and executive summaries. In regulated writing, we don't use the planning step because we already have a plan, but we draft and quality control because our document will reach diverse readers.

3. Reflective – This is the most complex type of writing. It requires a high level of thinking about the purpose, audience, scope, and organization, none of which may be apparent to the writer. Examples might be business analyses, formal proposals, and investigative reports. In reflective writing, we use all the steps of the writing process.

The table below summarizes how we would approach the writing process depending on the level of complexity.

In summary, here are four tips for using the writing process efficiently:

1. If the writing is routine, spend as little time as possible on it.
2. If the writing is regulated, pull out those templates and fill in the blanks.
3. If the writing is reflective, use the complete writing process.
4. To write faster, transform as many Level 3 documents as you can into Level 2 documents.

Using the Writing Process Effectively, Part 6: Quality Controlling

After you have planned and drafted your document, you are ready for step 3, quality controlling, when you protect your REP: Revise, Edit, and Proofread. Depending on the complexity and length of the message, this step may come in three stages, in the following order:

1. Revising for purposefulness, content, organization, and paragraphing. 

2. Editing for respectful tone, clear sentences, concise phrasing, and correct syntax (sentence structure) grammar,  diction (word choice and spelling), mechanics (capitalization and abbreviation), and punctuation. 

3. Proofreading for typos, spacing and font inconsistencies, and other overlooked errors. 

Now you are ready to press send!

Using the Writing Process Effectively, Part 5: Drafting

Assuming you have completed the planning step of the writing process by using idea tags, idea maps, or idea lists, you are now ready to write a rough draft, the second step. I emphasize the word rough because quality is not yet important, as you'll revise, edit, and proofread in the third step, quality control. Three points matter during drafting, as you are seeking to maximize your writing time: speed, uniformity, and volume. Remembering the acronym SUV will be helpful as you plow through your rough draft.

Speed – You do not need to write at a breakneck pace. Steady is the operative word. When it comes to writing, steady is speedy. Just move your fingers to push that cursor forward, paying no attention to organization, sentence structure, grammar, spelling, or punctuation. Get it all down. Do not rewrite until you are through drafting.

Uniformity – You created a plan in step 1 to move easily through the first draft, so stick to it. It might not be a perfect pan, but it's what you've got. 

Volume – I'm a big believer in less is more—but not in the first draft. More is more when drafting to give you a lay of the land when quality-controlling. Leave nothing in your plan behind. 

Using the Writing Process Effectively, Part 4: Planning with Idea Lists

 The third planning technique, idea listing, is my favorite because it wastes no time. It immediately brings writers to the computer where they will draft and quality control their message. The illustration shows the brainstorming phase in two steps and the organizing phase in three steps. It shows a writer planning a new policy message to all staff of a growing company.

In the brainstorming phase, the writer lists her topic in Step 1: requirement to display new employee ID badge. Step 2 of this phase is what some people would call a brain dump, when the writer lists every idea that pops into her mind about the topic without regard to its merit. You'll notice it is a disorganized mess of repetitive and irrelevant ideas. But the writer is happy with the list because she has plenty to work with in the organizing phase.

The organizing phase requires three additional steps. In Step 3, the writer cuts and pastes similar ideas into groups and gives each group a name, each of which will appear in a separate paragraph. In this case, the topics are purpose, getting, displaying, closing. In Step 4, she adds additional ideas as they occur to her. Notice Question anyone not displaying ID badge (appearing in a different font), is an addition after the brainstorming phase. In Step 5, she deletes ideas that don't fit into her plan, as in the three struck-through items at the bottom right. Now she can efficiently draft around these ideas. 

Do not stress over whether this process seems overly complicated with five steps. It's really two: brainstorming and organizing, and you'll be doing both steps simultaneously and nimbly once you get used to idea listing. 

 

Using the Writing Process Effectively, Part 3: Planning with Idea Maps

The idea map is another useful planning technique for writers wishing to work offline. Similar to mind mapping and concept mapping, the idea map helps writers to lay out ideas before drafting. 

The illustration shows a completed idea map created by a scientist proposing the hiring of two researchers for his lab. During the brainstorming phase, he grabs a sheet of blank paper and a bunch of varied color makers. First, he draws a circle in the middle of a sheet with his topic: "need two researchers." Next, he draws spokes from the circle, one color per spoke, to highlight the supporting points: benefits, problem, causes, recommendations, plan. Then come more sub-points and sub-sub-points within those supporting ones.

For the organizing phase, he structures the points as they will appear in his draft, starting with the ask (1. need two researchers), following the listed numerical and alphabetical order. You can imagine what this writer will be discussing in his proposal by reading the idea map he has created.

Using the Writing Process Effectively, Part 2: Planning with Idea Tags

Many techniques are available for the planning step of the writing process. I focus on three of them in this and the next two posts: idea tags, idea maps, and idea lists. All of them are indispensable in breaking writer's block and generating talking points for your document.

Idea Tags, Step 1: Brainstorming

Idea tagging is an off-screen planning method for those who like to work off the computer or cannot access one. It involves using self-stick notes, one per idea. I strongly recommend using stickies measuring 2" X 1 1/2" (roughly 5.1 cm X 3.8 cm) because as many as 24 can fit on a standard 8 1/2" X 11" (21.6 cm X 27.9 cm) sheet of paper, and many more on a cleared table or desk. This technique is a lot like storyboarding, the old-time Hollywood method of outlining a story in development. While my illustration uses words, you can draw pictures to represent ideas (e.g., a stick figure to signify staff, a house for facility, and a money bag for budget).

In the image above, I am dropping ideas for a report on a seminar I attended. Notice the randomness of the thoughts. I am simply brainstorming without attention to structure or quality. This is the creative step of idea tagging. 

Idea Tags, Step 2: Organizing

Next comes the organizing step, when I get MAD (Move, Add, Delete) about my idea tags. In the next illustration, I have moved the stickies into separate rows, each row representing a paragraph. I have also added ideas, in red ink as I moved the stickies around. And at the bottom, I have deleted ideas that have no place in the report by tearing them up. This is the analytical step of idea tagging.

I may not have every idea in front of me (I've left out cost, location, accommodations, and more), but at least I can start drafting my report based on the plan I've created with these idea tags.

Using the Writing Process Effectively, Part 1: Knowing When to Plan

Challenging work-related writing requires three steps:

• Step 1: Planning – brainstorming and organizing ideas. In this step, you are listing thoughts from your notes research, or off the top of your head, on or offscreen, that need to appear in your draft. 
• Step 2: Drafting – writing a rough copy. When drafting, you are prizing volume of content over quality of expression because you'll have time to make necessary changes in the third step.
• Step 3: Quality Controlling – revising, editing, proofreading. In this three-part step, you protect your REP (Revise, Edit, Proofread): revise by moving, adding, and deleting ideas; edit for tone, clarity, conciseness, and correctness of grammar, diction, punctuation, and mechanics; and proofreading for overlooked errors. 

If you can skip planning and start drafting, go right ahead. Why waste your time planning if you know what to write? 

But you'll know you need to plan—to generate and structure ideas for the first draft—in any of the following situations:

• Writer's Block – You get stuck, your eyes fixated on the blinking cursor, your fingers paralyzed, your mind locked on the last idea.
• Premature Perfectionism – You spend more time revising, editing, and proofreading one idea than you do moving ahead to the second, third, and fourth ones.
• Procrastination – You find yourself wanting to do anything other than finish that darn draft.
• Stress – You feel the whole writing experience is too painful, either mental exhausting or emotionally taxing.

The beauty of the planning step is its low expectations of perfectionists. By definition, you are not experiencing writer's block or stress in the planning step because you are just dropping on a page or the screen ideas as they pop in your head. You'll write single words, short phrases, or even as pictures to represent those ideas with no attention to quality language. In fact, you don't even need to use English. I often encourage nonnative speakers to use their first language in the planning step if it helps them. 

So how do we plan a draft? Stay tuned for the next post.