Writing It Tight And Getting To The Point

"I try to leave out the parts that people skip."

~Elmore Leonard

If you haven't read Elmore Leonard's crime novels, I highly recommend them. He takes the same approach -- in a broad, unadorned, stylistic sense -- as Ernest Hemingway. But when it comes to pure reading pleasure, give me Leonard any day. Despite the depth of his themes and his memorable characters, Papa Hemingway always gave me the impression that he was self-consciously imitating himself in a sort of mannered fashion. One reader's opinion.

In any case, I've got a theme of my own when it comes to communications -- whether it's writing emails or white papers, preparing briefings (very light on PowerPoint), or do-it-yourself PR, also known as Marketing Through the Media. And that theme is the close link between brevity and clarity.

Getting to the point early and backing it up with details performs two functions. It answers the questions: "What's this all about? Why should I read any further?" And it honors the busy readers' time. Nothing is more frustrating or off-putting than a series of long, ponderous paragraphs that meander to a main point that could be buried most anywhere, including the last paragraph.

Writing on deadline for various publications over the years, including the Kansas City Star and Business Week magazine, I learned that it takes much longer to "write tight" to fill the "white space" left after the ads are placed than it does to let it roll with long quotes and complicated sentences. In other words, I had to make decisions about what to keep and what stays in the notebook.

Another way to look at the process is to take careful AIM -- audience, intent and message. Know your audience and have a firm grip on intent, or purpose. Do you want to inform, request, answer questions, explain, ask for more information, clarify a previous email, teach or persuade? What result will tell you that you have accomplished your writing goals?

Once that is clear, what is the message? Will that message be obvious to the busy reader by the first or second paragraph? Efficient writing must consist of ideas supported by details, from the overall message to the sub-topics that follow, through the body to the conclusion. In other words, show, don’t tell.

One reliable method for organizing those details is to lay them out in bullet form -- whether chronological (sequential), by order of importance or by category. Depending on the complexity of the message, the bullets could lead into follow-up paragraphs, which themselves could adhere to a “compare and contrast” or “problem and solution” pattern.

Anyway, I was talking recently to a fellow government contractor with whom I plan to do some teaming, and he came up with a spot-on phrase that describes bureaucratic thinking (and thus writing), both public and private, at its worst. It's all about attitude and he calls it "risk aversion."

"Why take chances?" I imagine the risk-averse bureaucrat thinking. "Why not just write that form letter to the complaining taxpayer or vendor the way I've always written it? After all, it's safer that way, isn't it? I mean, that's the language that the lawyers suggested, with all the statute citations and 'to wits' and 'pursuants' and 'the above referenceds' and 'below listeds.'"

To be fair, my gripes don't apply to all bureaucrats. The training officials responsible for setting up the writing and presentation skills seminars I've run for the U.S. Energy Department nod vigorously in the back of the classroom when I discuss one of my favorite acronyms -- BLUF (bottom line up front) -- and tell the students that they are "public servants," not "public masters," and that their writing should reflect that distinction.

Facing Up To Facebook

So this is what all the excitement is about, huh? Knowing that someone has decided to make waffles instead of frying eggs on a snowy New England morning. Or reading that someone loves her children with such aching depth of feeling that she just has to proclaim it to her ever-expanding audience.

I got started on Facebook last month because I was told it can be a fine marketing tool. I'm still getting there, and the possibilities are starting to emerge. My plan is to exchange ideas with people who care about and have a professional interest in business communications and the role of the news media in marketing and crisis communications. I'll keep you posted.

Take care,
Dave

Rebirth of a Blog

Back and forth I’ve gone on all this “social media” business, and I’m a long way from making up my mind. Somehow the notion of “tweeting” hasn’t quite penetrated my thinking when it comes to serious and productive marketing. But I am reintroducing my blog. Why I let it slip I don’t know, but I do recall that it made for relaxed and stimulating conversation. Please join me at http://www.businesscommunications.wordpress.com, and react by sounding off on anything touching on business communications, presentation skills and writing skills, and all their promise and pitfalls. I'll continue to share what I know about the news media and how you can gain from press encounters, as well as writing and public speaking for success.