For any document, whether a proposal, report or presentation, regardless of how many authors will contribute, do actions 1 to 16 first!
- Define the objective: what is the message you want to get across (the soul)?
- Think of the audience: to whom are you delivering the message (the brains and the heart)?
- Create a Table of Contents: how to structure the message (the bones)? And create headings that reflect the soul of the message and appeal to the brains and the heart of the audience.
- Define the style of the document: formal or informal, commercial or technical, textual or graphical, and make sure the style relates to the objective and the audience.
- Create a Storyboard that adds some flesh to the bones: add outlines of content to the headings.
- Define the maximum number of pages per heading, and make sure your document does not exceed 25 pages. Nobody will read any document beyond 25 pages!
- If you really need more pages, create a number of appendices.
- Create headings for the appendices in relation to your audience, in such a manner that any reader can immediately discover what appendices to read and what appendices to skip.
- Create a Storyboard for the appendices: add outlines of content.
- Choose a document template that reflects the style of the document.
- Enter the Table of Contents and the Storyboard in the template, creating a document in the appropriate style, with the appropriate headings and the appropriate outline per heading.
- Write the introduction, delivering the message you want to get across in the style that suits the audience, and briefly introduce the structure of the document.
- Write the conclusions that you want to arrive at, delivering the message you want to get across in the style that suits the audience.
- Check your introduction and summary: have you said it as concise and clear as possible?
- Have your product assessed by somebody that knows and understands both the objective and the audience.
- Instruct your co-authors that one picture may say more than a thousand words, but be sure to have the right type of pictures.
When more authors are to contribute to the document, they can now understand what is expected from them. But have only one editor who ‘owns’ the document and who will make sure that all its content is aiming to deliver exactly the right message to the specific audience in the chosen style.