Hit your word count the first time Remember the old saw: “After you’ve written your first draft, rewrite it as if you have a rule that it can’t be printed until it’s cut by one-third”? Wait! So first, we’re supposed to write a piece that’s 33 percent longer than required, then unwrite a third of it? Who has time for that?! I cringe every time a writing teacher trots … [Read more...] about Write to fit
Tight writing
Write for the ear
Read your copy aloud When Don Murray arrived in the newsroom for his first day on the job as writing coach for the Boston Globe, he turned to his new boss and said: “I can tell you who your three best writers are.” Then the Pulitzer Prize-winner and author of Writing to Deadline proceeded to do just that. “How did you know?” the editor asked. “Their lips move when … [Read more...] about Write for the ear
Don’t commit verbicide
Streamline syllables with action words This just in, writes one of my favorite correspondents, sharing a sentence his subject matter expert has written: “ABC employees have problem solved their way to an XYZ Company Continuous Improvement success by purchasing a specifically designed storage cabinet to protect the life ring at the neutralization discharge … [Read more...] about Don’t commit verbicide
Get to the verb faster
Avoid long parenthetical phrases Quick! Where’s your verb? For clarity’s sake, put it near the front of your sentence, right after your subject. It’s harder to follow sentences with delayed verbs, like this one, where the verb doesn’t show up until 28 words in: “The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America (Guardian), one of the largest mutual life insurers and a … [Read more...] about Get to the verb faster
Pleading for shorter sentences
Sentence length one of top 2 predictors of readable copy A professor of English Literature at the University of Nebraska was the first person to link sentence length to comprehension. In the 1880s, Lucius Adelno Sherman took the first statistical look at writing when he calculated sentence length in historical literature. In his book, The Analytics of Literature (1893), … [Read more...] about Pleading for shorter sentences