Why and how to add POP to your writing

Three essentials can help writers conceive, develop and execute their prose.

They’re easily remembered with the acronym POP: purpose, objective, process.

Here’s how they roll out:

1. Purpose. This is the overarching reason you’re writing. It might be the theme of your blog. Identifying purpose involves a macro-level understanding of what you’re trying to accomplish.

Consider Julie Powell, whose story was featured in the movie “Julie & Julia.” Powell’s purpose was to whip up 500-plus recipes, all drawn from Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking,” in 365 days—and then share the experience with a growing cohort of readers. Again, it’s the big-picture view of the endeavor.

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For Brighter Writer, it’s about sharing decades’ worth of gathered writing and editing guidance with our websites’ readers.

Regarding internal emails, one’s purpose would probably be conveying work-related updates and other information to colleagues—and, in certain cases (ahem), making obscure pop culture references.