For example, children's internet addiction is particularly large recently. Do you want to manage it? How to manage? The A-share market fluctuates frequently. Do you want to increase your position?

For another example, the boss asked you to complete a work report within a time limit, but you felt unable to start with a pile of information; Or you have a particularly good planning scheme, but the leader didn't respond after listening to it, and so on.

These questions will make us think, and we will find ourselves submerged in a lot of ideas and data to consider.

So, how to find a quick way to save yourself? The answer lies in the book Structured Writing. That is, through structured thinking, we can be clear-minded, write with spirit and write quickly, and win the persuasion in the workplace.

The author of this book, Li Zhongqiu, is the founder of the Institute of Structural Thinking. Since the establishment of 20 14, the school of structural thinking has served more than 300 large and medium-sized enterprises, such as top 500 enterprises, with more than 1000 face-to-face courses, more than 30,000 offline students and more than 100 online students.

Li Zhongqiu is also the author of Structural Thinking and Seeing the World through Structure. It can be said that Li Zhongqiu's "structural thinking" is the localization of McKinsey's golden pagoda principle in China. And this kind of structured writing is a writing method that uses structural thinking to deepen thinking.

Structural writing consists of three parts: introduction, basic article and method article. Correspond to each other in my sharing today.

1. What is structured writing? Why structured writing?

2. What are the core principles of structured writing?

3. Specific application methods of structured writing.

What exactly is "structured"? The author believes that the collocation and arrangement between various components is "structure". We can understand how we organize and match a large number of materials, data and opinions.

Figuratively speaking, if the writing material is compared to the transformation of ingredients, we writers are chefs, and chefs of different levels will make different dishes in the face of the same ingredients. The difference between novice and expert lies more in the different recipes, that is, the different organization and collocation of ingredients, or the different innovative thinking ability. For example, the same tofu, I may only mix tofu with shallots, you may make Mapo tofu, and Michelin masters will make fragrant mango milk tofu.

The difference here is not raw materials, but the creativity of the organization and collocation of these raw materials. We can also make him think. We often do this in our daily choices, communication and writing. We are not short of materials (facts and data). What we lack is the ability to synthesize these materials and form our own opinions.

And this book can tell us how to organize and match materials and help us improve this ability. It can also be said that it provides several "recipes" for our writing that can make us better immediately.

By reading this book, we can write "hotel-class" articles from materials to "recipes". It is also possible to reach Michelin level after proficiency. Of course, it also depends on the individual's understanding and ability. But in any case, according to the method of this book, people can still get started quickly.

The "menu" I am talking about here is actually the process template of writing. The author says it is mainly suitable for workplace writing, but I think the methods in it can also be applied to other occasions where communication is needed. Because this is a set of thinking paths and an exercise of thinking. Through such thinking practice, it is helpful to improve our thinking ability.

We say that structured thinking mainly provides a set of thinking paths for everyone to learn a way of thinking. It is equivalent to a "recipe" that can be followed. Here, its core principle is summarized as "conclusion first, unity in theory, classification and grouping, and logical progression".

If you are familiar with barbara minto's "Golden Pagoda Principle", you will find that the words 16 are actually the core idea of the Golden Pagoda Principle. Here, the author briefly describes his "demonstration analogy" in four words.

"Theory" corresponds to "conclusion first", which emphasizes that an expression must have a clear conclusion; "Positive" corresponds to "the unity of superior and subordinate", emphasizing the argumentation relationship between superior and subordinate; "Class" corresponds to "classification and grouping", emphasizing the importance of classification; "Comparison" corresponds to "logical progression", which emphasizes the comparison between the same level and the same group of information, thus determining the order of information arrangement. This is still a bit abstract,

Let's use examples from life to illustrate: watch the first act first,

Look at the second scene:

The first scene: it is completely irregular, and it is estimated that no one can remember it.

The second scene, although I bought nine things, uses the principle of argument and analogy, and the expression is concise and clear. Very easy to remember.

Let's use these two scenarios to specifically explain the principles of these four words:

An expression only supports one core idea or central idea and should be placed at the beginning.

For example, in the above example, the second scene directly tells her husband to go to the supermarket to buy nine things, while in the first scene, Rory is so verbose that her husband doesn't know what to buy.

This is in daily life, especially in workplace writing: workplace writing has its particularity. The purpose of our writing is to explain and clarify something or to provide and convey important information. So be sure to point out your point at the beginning. This is different from literary writing. For example, the novel puts the "conclusion" back and attracts readers to continue reading by creating suspense.

The upper conclusion is the generalization and summary of the lower information, and the lower information is the explanation and explanation of the upper conclusion.

In the second scene, watermelon, peach and grape are unified under the fruit, which is a generalization. Conversely, fruits, including watermelons, peaches and grapes, are an explanation and explanation.

Specific to writing, it is to find and extract commonalities from written materials, and then summarize them and express them in concise language.

Information with similarity or correlation should be classified into the same logical category according to certain standards.

For example, goods are classified according to fruits, daily necessities, milk, etc.

Corresponding to writing, classification is to deeply understand the intrinsic properties of things, and constantly explore and discover the relationship between things, so as to divide seemingly chaotic things into categories, make the original fuzzy and chaotic information clear, and then reach a systematic and organized state.

Information in the same logical category must be arranged in a certain logical order, so as to conform to people's cognitive habits.

For example, we all know this story:

Once upon a time, there was a mountain. There was a temple in the mountain. In the temple, an old monk told a story to a young monk. . . It is organized in the order from big to small. If it were a temple and a mountain, there would be a young monk and an old monk telling stories in the temple. That sounds awkward.

Therefore, organizing what you want to express in a certain order is more conducive to accurate and smooth communication. If your expression is chaotic, it will only make the other person feel that your thoughts are not clear and you have not thought clearly about related topics.

The above is the concrete content of "demonstration analogy" and the guiding ideology of structured writing. Let's look at the specific application.

Four writing scenarios, namely, delivering information, summarizing work, persuading others and reporting plans, are selected for detailed introduction.

Quickly sorting out ideas and organizing language is not only the first need in workplace writing, but also the need of daily life and expression. So here I mainly share how to organize information quickly and effectively in a short time.

This book has three parts. For the sake of memory, here I express this process in the form of a rocket.

The first part, design a title that attracts readers' attention.

The second part, writing a preface: write a wonderful beginning that readers are willing to read.

The third part, expand the content: quickly build the context of writing common scenes in the workplace.

In fact, these steps are not only needed for workplace writing, but also for new media articles.

The famous Nobel Prize winner herbert simon once said, "With the development of information, what is valuable is not information, but attention." And grasping attention begins with the title.

Although workplace writing is not as painstaking as new media writing, in order to grab the eye, it does not hesitate to "name the party". But the title also determines the priority of your report or email in many waiting lists.

The principle of a good title can be summarized by the SPA principle. SPA: Simple, clear, profitable, accurate and objective. Simply put, it is simple, accurate and to the point.

Simplicity and accuracy are relatively easy to achieve, and interest correlation is the most important and difficult to achieve in SPA principles. Because on the one hand, you need to put yourself in the other's shoes and deeply understand the other's concerns and interests; On the other hand, you need to think deeply about your content and ask why?

SPA principle can also be expressed by a universal formula: "Who+did what+got what result".

For example, if you want to make a company's strategic report, you will directly name it "* * Company's Strategic Planning Report", and the results will not be included. It would be better if the title was changed to "reform and innovation, reduce costs and increase efficiency, and improve business performance". For another example, the "Spring Festival internal recommendation policy" is not more specific than the "Spring Festival internal reward flip".

It can be seen that although the optimized title is not gorgeous, it clearly tells readers why you should read my plan and report, because it is good for you.

The function of this part is to set up a ramp to let readers know what kind of background we want to talk about or what kind of problems we want to solve. With such "bedding", the other party can better understand the core content behind you.

In this part, you can usually introduce a story. The quality of this story, or your ability to tell stories, directly determines whether you can retain readers next.

As we all know, a good story needs a touching plot, and the plot needs contradictions and conflicts to promote it, so that the whole story is full of twists and turns. Do you still remember the story of a pony crossing the river when you were a child? The outline of the story is this:

This passage actually hides a "pattern": first explain the background, then throw an "however" to make things turn around, then ask questions, and finally give the answer to the questions.

This model is actually a story-telling routine: we also call it SCQA model. S: Situation C: Conflict Q: Question A: Answer.

Situation is a description of the original stable state, that is, what has happened or is happening. Generally speaking, the theme of the article is a recognized fact, which must conform to the reader's knowledge, beliefs, feelings and wishes in order to make the reader feel a sense of identity. Only when you agree, readers will be interested, which is more conducive to the all-round development of the content behind the article. From the perspective of storytelling, it is an original "plot".

For the story you are telling, it is a factor that will produce contradictions and make you feel nervous at the same time, and this contradiction will make readers wonder.

The questions you ask are used to guide readers' thinking direction, or when the problems caused by conflicts are particularly obvious, they can also be hidden and become hidden questions.

The answer is to answer the questions in the reader's mind.

For example, this passage

Preface is not only the above structure, but also can be transformed into the following structure according to different situations.

Take the prominent anxiety type as an example:

Cut to the chase:

The structure of the preface seems simple, but it is not easy to write it well. Good standards are clear, fluent, logical and persuasive.

The title in line with SPA principle and the preface in SCQA form have formed a good start for writing, and then we should build a framework for the core content.

There is a direct, simple, quick and effective method, that is, calling the 2W 1H thinking framework (what is it? Why? How? )。

Specifically, it also corresponds to parallel and progressive expansion modes.

1. Parallel: Description

At work, we often need to describe and explain something or something to others.

For example, report to the leader and tell him what work items are being handled now, why and how to handle them;

In the coordinate form, there is no clear expression order of the three, which can be adjusted according to the actual situation. At the same time, there is no need to expand three contents at a time.

Let's give an example from life. In order to make her husband take more family responsibilities, the wife decided to "educate" her husband. This husband has a good attitude and is more cooperative. So the wife decided what to say first, and the key point was to let him know what responsibility he needed to take.

In fact, my wife has prepared another plan. If the husband is unwilling, unwilling, she will give priority to "persuasion and education". Let me talk about why first.

Step by step: clarify the problem

There is also a situation that exists in a large number of work scenes, that is, "solving problems." A large number of reports in daily work are aimed at solving problems, and the conventional routine about problems is: what problems-what reasons-how to solve them.

This order just corresponds to people's thinking habits: asking questions-analyzing problems-solving problems. Step by step is very convincing because it implies some form of logical reasoning. In daily life, progressive advertising is often used to persuade consumers to buy products.

Take the advertisement of Head & Shoulders as an example: "Buy now! Dandruff removal strength, Head & Shoulders "

Ask a question (or describe a phenomenon): dandruff appears repeatedly. Problem analysis: the head oil is continuously secreted. Solution: Use new Head & Shoulders to form a protective layer.

If it is a complicated problem, you can call a comprehensive framework 5W2h(What Why Who Where amount).

By designing the topic, writing the preface and expanding the content, we can quickly build a writing framework, which is like a "recipe" provided to us. With it, we can organize the materials in our hands into an article with clear structure, clear organization and strict logic.

Today's sharing is over. We studied structured writing, the core principles of structured writing, and how to organize information quickly and effectively.

Qingyuan, a Zen master in the Song Dynasty, put forward three realms of participating in Zen: at the beginning of participating in Zen, seeing mountains is mountains and water is water; In meditation, seeing mountains is not mountains and water is not water; When you realize in Zen, mountains are still mountains and water is still water.

In fact, our thinking and writing training will also go through such a process: at first, we have no way, our thinking level is limited, and we can only see the surface of things. At this time, we can completely follow the template and process.

When we are trained for a period of time, we will look at things from a multi-dimensional perspective, and we can connect different things and find the laws. Finally, when the level of thinking reaches a certain level, it will definitely break through the framework, break through the self and get rid of things.