I’m sorry to have written such a long letter.

If I had had more time,

I could have written a shorter one. – Blaise Pascal

Principle 1_Write with Top-Down Approach

 Write your conclusion and place it first.
The reader is first told what the writing is about, then given the supporting facts or details. This
way, the reader is not left guessing at the writer’s main idea. The hard-and-fast rule in expository
writing is that we should not keep our conclusion from the reader. We should come out with it
right away. When our purpose is to explain or inform, don’t play, “I’ve got a secret.”

It is human nature, and it seems logical, that we should conclude at the end rather than the
beginning. But writing should be top-down, structured in the inverted pyramid style.

Favor the top-down approach to writing:

Most Important
Next Most Important
Next most Important
Least Important

Conceptually, we want to think in terms of a descending writing structure—one in which we move

“downhill” from conclusion to details rather than “uphill” from details to conclusion.

An airline pilot never leaves the runway without having a destination and flight pattern. When our
purpose in writing is to explain or inform, we should conclude first then concentrate on
supporting details. Don’t play “I’ve got a secret.”

Sample Writing)
Asia and Africa represent the biggest future international market for basic consumer
goods if population is used as a measure. Basic consumer goods represent durable and
nondurable daily necessities, including food and cooking utensils, clothing and textiles, toiletries,
electronics, home furnishings, and mechanized and miscellaneous household products.
Three-fourths of the world’s people currently live in Asia and Africa—from South Africa to
the Sahara, from the Middle East to Japan, from Siberia to Indonesia. This population statistic is
quite revealing. It we selectively and representatively choose four persons from the entire world,
here is what the probable outcome would be. One person would be from China, one would be
from India, and one more would be from somewhere else in Asia or Africa. The fourth person
would have to be chosen from all of North America, South America, Europe, and Oceania!