01.01 Planning

Logo of a pointer cursor being drawn by a fountain pen

PLANNING

Calipers

The writing process

  1. Planning

  2. Writing

  3. Editing

Planning for your audience

Anonymous mask with circle and slash.

Roles and goals

Painting of a glass on a table, originally by Vincent Van Gogh

Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.

— Kurt Vonnegut

Knowledge

Line drawing of a brain

Mental models

Image of a glass elevator.

Planning your document

Image of a woman being embraced by text.

Purpose

Image of a hand-drawn compass rose.

Scope

What you want to write

Book entitled ALL ABOUT FROGS.

What your readers need

Book entitled EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT FROGS.

Vertical scope

Image of a stack of pancakes.

Horizontal scope

The boundaries of what you do may not be the boundaries of what your audience wants to do.

Horizontal bar with four regions, A & B being what the team does and B & C being what the reader needs to meet their goals. A & B are highlighted.
Horizontal bar with four regions, A & B being what the team does and B & C being what the reader needs to meet their goals. B & C are highlighted.

Document structure

Image of the internal metal frame of a building under construction.

References

Image of reference books in Trinity College Library in Dublin.

Word list

Image of Santa Claus reading a long list.

Fin

Line drawing of a fish