Brevity is Your Ally. A few months ago, I read a post by Seth Godin called Rewrite for Humans. Now, what I love about Seth, besides his way of looking at the world of marketing and communication, is his ability to use enough words to make his point eloquently and no more.
His daily posts are read, digested, and learned from in two minutes or less, and I have started my day out by reading his musings for as long as I can remember.
This concept of brevity got me thinking about the Mark Twain quote,
“I didn’t have time to write you a short letter, so I wrote you a long one.”
Mark Twain
Words are thought-provoking, and we should be deliberate and not waste them. With the right words directed at the right audience, impact, understanding, and action occur.
However, when we try to be overly flowery in our language, using words designed to puff up our own importance rather than drive home a point, that point can be easily lost.
I will never forget when I first saw the phrase TL/DR and had to enquire about its meanings.
TOO LONG, DON’T READ!
What a blow to the ego that must be. For all to hear, it says what you wrote is superfluous, ill-written and verbose.
It means that most people will ignore vital details, whether they are vitally important to them or not.
Now, I am not saying that we always need to be brief, far from it. There are times when more data, illustration and case-making arguments are required to demonstrate a point or make a case. However, not everyone involved in a decision needs to read everything.
This is the beauty of the one-page (or paragraph) synopsis. It gives everyone a brief understanding of the salient points, why they are essential, and what should happen next. The following pages of data are available for those who wish, need or desire greater context to be satisfied and confident about what they believe the following steps should be.
The main question we need to ask ourselves as we write is, are we writing to profess and demonstrate our own knowledge and thought leadership on a subject, or are we writing to enable those who read to have a better understanding of the issue at hand in language and with analogies that are relevant to them?
Most people write with the former in mind (consciously or subconsciously), and I contend that this is the wrong way of looking at things.
If we write with our audience in mind, thinking about how to make things easier for them to understand, internalise and engage with, we further our cause.
However, if we write to puff out our chests, we may have an audience of one, and quite honestly, how many of us re-read what we have just written?
I challenge people here to write their thoughts and then put the piece away for an hour, a day or a week. Give yourself time and space to come back to it and edit it, thinking of the hands it will end up in, what you critically need them to understand and what you want them to do next.
You may make it shorter or possibly longer, but in the end, it will be more precise and better received because you did take the time and effort to edit it.
By the way, the original wordcount of this essay was 557 words and the finished piece, 579.
Editor’s Footnote
Ben is one of a select few, who have been chosen to become a Featured Columnist for The Maverick Paradox Magazine. You can read all his articles by clicking below.
