Writing a Main Message

As the examples indicate, your main message should not be very long or detailed. It is usually only a sentence or two. However, it should have the following qualities to be effective:

• It must reflect the writer’s purpose.
• It must answer the reader’s main question.
• It should provoke further questions from the reader.

The main message establishes the basis for extending your dialogue with the reader—additional questions and answers from which you can create the organizing framework (outline) for the report.

Although you are still in the planning stage, you must write a main message now in the form you imagine it will take in the actual report. You should include it near the beginning of your document. (As mentioned, in Module 4 on introductions and headings, you will learn more about the placement of the main message in the introduction.)