← Chapter 5
Professional Writing · Chapter 5

The Form Router

Before you write a sentence you have to decide what the document is — memo, letter, or short report — and that is a decision about the reader and the record, not about the software you happened to open. Pick a situation, answer the four selection questions, and watch the router commit. Then open all three versions of the opening sentence and hear how far apart they are.
1 · Pick a situation
Four real ones. The facts stay the same; only the reader changes.
2 · What the router decides
The verdict updates the moment you have answered the first three questions.
Waiting
—
Answer questions 1 through 3 and the form resolves itself.
    3 · Now choose the channel
    The genre is what the document is. The channel is only how it travels — and it usually decides whether the document still exists in five years.
    4 · Same facts, three openings
    The routed form is expanded. Open the other two and read what the wrong form does to the first sentence.
    Watch question 4. It never changes the form. It changes how much context you have to write down and which channel you are allowed to use.