Directives

This must be the most common kind of business memorandum written anywhere in the world – reflecting a situation in which you are writing to tell someone else to do something. In this case, you will be planting the question in the reader’s mind, rather than reminding him of it.

To illustrate, suppose you are holding a meeting for your field salesmen, at which you are planning to teach them how to present a new selling technique to chain grocery stores. However, in order to do so effectively you need some information from them on a particular problem chain in their local area. How would you structure the introduction? Very much in this manner:

• S = At the field sales meeting we want to teach you how to present the Space Management Program

• C = Need a profile of a problem chain in your area

• Q = (How do I prepare the profile?)

Or, to put it as starkly as possible:

• S = We want to do X

• C = We need you to do Y

• Q = How do I do Y?

In this case the question would be implied rather than stated, since the flow of the writing would not require it to be spelled out. Nevertheless, it is absolutely essential that you spell it out for yourself before you begin to write. Otherwise, you run the danger of not being absolutely sure of your question.

In this example, the question is ‘How?’ Whenever the question is ‘How?’ the answer is inevitably ‘steps,’ so that you would end up with a structure something like that shown in Exhibit 14. Note also that the Complication and the Answer are reversals of each other, since the Answer is the effect of carrying out the actions, which of course would solve the problem.

To try another example, suppose you have a procedures manual that various people in the company update or add to, and you want to make sure they all do it in the same way:

• S = We have a manual covering activities where nonconformity of action would be detrimental. From time to time needs updating.

• C = To ensure compatibility, important to follow the same procedure.

• Q = (What is the procedure?)

And again you have another question that would be implied rather than stated in writing. To show the pattern starkly:

• S = You do X

• C = Must do in Y way

• Q = What is Y way?

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中文翻译：

指令性文件

这是世界上最常见的一类商业备忘录，反映了你在写作中试图告诉别人去做某件事情的情境。在这种情况下，你的任务是把问题植入读者的脑海中，而不是提醒他们问题的存在。

举个例子，假设你正在为外勤销售员举办一场会议，计划向他们教授如何向连锁超市推销一种新的销售技巧。然而，为了有效进行，你需要从他们那里获取关于某个本地问题连锁店的信息。你会如何组织引言？大致可以这样进行：

• S = 在外勤销售会议上，我们希望教你如何展示空间管理计划。

• C = 需要一份关于你所在地区某个问题连锁店的概况。

• Q = （我该如何准备这份概况？）

或者，用最直接的方式表达：

• S = 我们想做 X

• C = 我们需要你做 Y

• Q = 我如何做 Y？

在这种情况下，问题是隐含的，而不是直接陈述的，因为文章的逻辑并不需要明确写出来。然而，在你开始写作之前，明确这个问题是绝对必要的，否则你可能根本无法确定自己需要解决的问题。

在这个例子中，问题是“如何？”每当问题是“如何”时，答案必然是“步骤”，这样你会得到类似于图示14中展示的结构。还需要注意的是，“复杂性”和“答案”是彼此的反转，因为答案是行动带来的结果，而行动自然会解决问题。

再举一个例子，假设你有一本程序手册，公司里不同的人会更新或补充这本手册，而你想确保他们都以相同的方式操作：

• S = 我们有一本手册涵盖了如果行动不一致将会造成损害的活动。这本手册需要定期更新。

• C = 为确保兼容性，遵循相同的程序非常重要。

• Q = （什么是程序？）

同样地，这里也有另一个问题，它是隐含的，而不是直接陈述的。用最直接的方式表达模式如下：

• S = 你做 X

• C = 必须以 Y 的方式做

• Q = 什么是 Y 的方式？