Here is another valuable Management Tip of the Day from Harvard Business Review. To sign up for a free subscription to any/all HBR newsletters, please click here.

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Writing under deadline pressure is always a challenge, but all that last-minute tinkering ultimately won’t help much if your larger message isn’t clear. Replacing the word “purchase” with “buy” would be like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Instead, take a step back and follow these three tips.

o First, ask yourself: Do I get right to the point? You need to lead with your central message to focus your reader’s attention. Give enough detail to contextualize your main point and cut the rest.

o Second, make sure your topic sentences — the first lines of each paragraph — give the reader a sense of what’s coming. These lines shouldn’t just be descriptive (I met with the client at his office in Boston), they need to communicate the most important information (My meeting with the client focused primarily on plans for future growth).

Third, use active voice, not passive voice, whenever possible. Jack made a mistake is better than A mistake was made — unless, of course, you don’t want to tell on Jack.

If you use these three strategies during the writing process, you shouldn’t need to do as much last-minute tinkering in the future.

This tip is adapted from “3 Ways to Make Your Writing Clearer,” by Jane Rosenzweig.

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Here’s a direct link to dozens of other Management Tips.