Collecting Your Ideas

Start by jotting down ideas in note form. Do not write sentences at this stage. Remember your aim and concentrate on the questions in the readers' minds. This will help you to include only those ideas which are relevant, rather than writing everything you know about the subject.

Not all of your ideas will come at once, so plan to meet your deadline. Be prepared to spend some time on noting initial ideas and then set the document aside. When you come back to it later, you will find that your ideas have gelled and that you can see the way ahead more clearly.

You might find it helpful to review our section on Gathering Information at this point.

Selecting Your Ideas

• Review the content of the document. Are all the ideas relevant? Is there anything which you need to cut out? Think about using appendices or attachments to cover detail which the reader may need at a later stage, but does not need in order to understand the main message.
• Decide how to show the significance of your facts. Would some graphs or diagrams help the readers understand your message? What visual material will you use? How will you produce it?