Successful writing, a short course for professionals — George T. Vardaman and Patricia Black Vardaman

This brief eleven-part program effectively treats a subject that often appears bewilderingly complex by breaking it down logically into manageable subunits and moving from the general to the particular in examining them. The authors have called their method PRIDE to help students remember the five basic elements of the system: Purpose, Receiver, Impact, Design, and Execution. The sender (communicator) must first be thoroughly familiar with the purpose or mission of his communication, or it will surely fail. He must also understand the nature of the receiver to whom the message is directed, and the impact he desires the message to have on that receiver. Also important are communication design and execution: how the message should be organized, developed, and carried out to achieve the sender´s goal. The professional communicator uses these five elements to sharpen the focus of his message and avoid the “shotgun approach” to organizational writing.