Wednesday, July 06, 2011

Brevity

by CWK

"Brevity is the soul of wit."

Yes, it is.

So, dear writers and speakers, strive for brevity.

Err toward brevity because your audience only has a certain ‘attention span.’ After so long, no matter how good a communicator you are, you will lose them. It's only a matter of time. Do you hear that clock ticking in the background as you write? With every tick, it screams, "Brevity. Brevity. Brevity." 

In erring toward brevity you are striving to say as much as possible in as little time as possible. As a rule, it would be better to say too little than say too much. Thus, err toward brevity.

In erring toward brevity I am NOT saying cut out important material. I AM saying cut out unimportant, insignificant, insubstantial filler. How do you know what to cut? Start by cutting everything you can.

Perhaps nothing annoys an audience as much as a speaker or writer who is ‘long-winded.’ If you develop a reputation for being long-winded, people will RUN away from you. And they should. This is a high form of inconsiderateness.

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