The Project Worksheet for Efficient Writing Management

• Published in: Publications Management: Essays for Professional Communicators pp. 117 - 126
• Main Author: Harris, John S.
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 1994
• Edition: 1
• Subjects: USA; Persona; Brigham Young University; Worksheet Questions; Overthrust Belt; Highway; Worksheet; Palladium; Writing Assignments; Sierra; Ceo; Writing Cycle; MBA; Follow; Graphic Aids; Red Flag Statements; Grapevine; Reader’s Purposes; Radial Keratotomy; USA Today; Dental Hygiene; Project Worksheet; Technical Writing Program; Planning Questions
• ISBN: 9780895031631; 0895031647; 0895031639; 9780895031648
• DOI: 10.4324/9781315231334-13

When employees produce poor quality documents, the fault may lie not with their incompetence or lack of devotion to the job, but with inadequate and unclear assignments from their project managers or publications managers. The Project Worksheet is designed to help managers give initial writing assignments, effectively manage documents during production, and evaluate finished products. The Project Worksheet consists of a series of questions that help writers and managers consider the factors involved in planning a document. The manager and writer must determine the document’s intended readers, its purpose, scope, form, length, graphic aids, and sources of information. They must know such things before the writing begins. Failure to consider them results in inefficient document production and poor-quality of the documents. Managers can reduce the trial-and-error writing cycle by providing complete answers for such planning questions during a writing assignment conference.