For more successful writing, answer these discovery questions before you begin!
Exigence
- Where did this idea come from? Who asked for it?
- What’s the idea in a nutshell? (one simple sentence)
Audience
- Who’s my reader? Do I have more than one cla1ss of reader?
- Who’s part of the conversation, and who’s been left out?
- What’s their prior knowledge? Might they have any pre-conceptions on the topic?
- What additional context would people need to understand what’s going on?
Author’s Purpose
- What am I trying to achieve? (explain, persuade, entertain, tell a story…)
- What’s my unique insight or angle on this topic?
- Is there anything specific I want my readers to understand or do?
Reader’s Purpose
- Who cares, and why?
- What would prompt someone to start reading this post? Are they looking for something?
- What would make someone want to stick with this post to the end, or return to it later?
Genre and Approach
- Which format will best tell this story? (e.g. text, video, poster, something else…)
- What’s an appropriate mood or tone for the piece?
- What’s an appropriate size and scope? What can I leave out? Consider breaking it up into several smaller posts, or linking to other information…
- Does this post need images? What value would images add?
