NCO Primary Leadership Subjects
Organizing Your Thoughts, Continued
Using the previous example, the purpose of your paper is to improve writing
Example:
effectiveness in your unit. You could develop the following statement to express this
Defining the
purpose:
purpose
"To establish policies, procedures, and standard formats for preparing and processing
correspondence in this organization."
That would be a way to standardize and, therefore, improve correspondence in the
unit. But it doesn't indicate what you expect your reader to do with the information.
It also misses the mark in solving the problem you identified. You could restate the
purpose as follows:
"To suggest ways for unit members to improve their writing ability."
The specific purpose of your paper may be to:
Specific
purposes
Arouse interest.
Influence attitude.
Provide information.
Solve a problem.
Direct action.
Evaluate a condition or recommendation.
Regardless of the specific purpose of your paper, your main purpose is to get your
Define your
ideas across to your readers. You must now decide who your audience is. What you
audience
know about their educational background and experience will influence and guide
your writing.
Continued on next page
Writing Mechanics and Composition
4-19
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