Tweet

Writers Master the Art of Brevity and Satisfy Readers

Written by: Melinda Copp

Article Overview: Time is precious, and readers need a reason to keep reading—it’s a fact of life these days when information is available almost instantaneously. Especially in the Internet, you must get to the point right away, as studies have shown that on average you've only got nine seconds to make an impression and hook a reader before he or she clicks away. Readers want to know why they should bother reading the documents you produce, and they don’t want to wade through dense, unclear prose, which is why writers can make their work more successful by learning the art of brevity.

Writers Master the Art of Brevity and Satisfy Readers

Time is precious, and readers need a reason to keep reading—it’s a fact of life these days when information is available almost instantaneously. Especially in the Internet, you must get to the point right away, as studies have shown that on average you've only got nine seconds to make an impression and hook a reader before he or she clicks away. Readers want to know why they should bother reading the documents you produce, and they don’t want to wade through dense, unclear prose, which is why writers can make their work more successful by learning the art of brevity.

To ensure your intended message comes across clearly and quickly, consider the following strategies.

1. Know Your Reader
Knowing your intended reader is essential for success, no matter what you’re writing. But in the context of brevity, knowing what your reader needs to gain from your document allows you to get straight to the point. So consider: what does your reader want? What you’re your reader need? And how can you communicate that right away? Always consider the reader first and then use that knowledge to convey your written document’s purpose in a way that hooks the reader immediately—then you can eliminate everything that isn’t critical.

2. Brevity Doesn’t Mean Your Ideas should be Under-Developed
While many of the clients and readers you’re writing for will like shorter documents, shorter isn’t always considered better. No matter what you’re writing, you have to make your points effectively. So you can’t just eliminate content for the sake of keeping it short. The key is to say what you mean in as few words as possible, whether you're writing a 100,000-word novel or a 300-word blog post.

Remember, too, that brief and clear are not necessarily the same thing. A piece of text can be brief, while not clear at all. As always, choose all your words carefully and do enough research to ensure that you can communicate the most important points in a concise way.

3. Work within Your Word Count
An important factor to consider in this discussion is word count. If you’re writing an assignment, you may have a word count guideline that you need to meet. In this case, the challenge is often to keep your information concise so that you don’t exceed your limit. Make sure all the content is relevant. Once again, this means that you'll need to look at the project with an objective eye and cut any information that doesn't belong, even when it might be part of an otherwise beautifully written sentence. But you shouldn’t write less than the required amount, either.

For example, when consultants are contracted to carry out research and produce the necessary reports, readers often prefer to see longer, more developed works submitted to them. As well, when a school tutor asks for a 500-word essay, they really mean it and you won’t get away with anything less. Of course, that goes for publishers as well. Most have minimum word requirements that they expect any submission to follow. Not hitting the prescribed amount usually means that your text may be discarded.

4. Copyedit for Conciseness
Another way to ensure that everything you write is brief is to use language effectively by conveying your meaning with as few words as possible. Where brevity is concerned, you should go back over your text to look for sentences that can be reworked in a more concise way. For example, adverbs and passive verbs often add unnecessary wordiness. Remember that unnecessary words and phrases will only turn the reader off from the subject matter, and when that happens often enough, they'll turn away from the piece altogether.

Brevity and Clarity in Your Writing
In their work and private lives, people are pressed for time and if you can’t give them a reason to keep reading right away, then they won’t. When you use these strategies, you can ensure that your written works are as clear and brief as possible, and that your readers will stick with you to the end.

Related Articles
  Chapter by Chapter: Ten Self-Editing Questions Every Writer Needs to Consider
  Online Social Networks Part 1 Social Networking
  Writing Tip: Put what you want to get done in paragraph one
  Learning From Other Freelance Writers
  SEO Copywriting and Article Writing Part 1

Article Tags: brevity, fact of life, few words, life these days, novel, prose, sake, straight to the point



Related Forum Posts
MLM Master Distributor Needed - Hi, We are launching a brand new MLM company this month and we need to bring on a Master Distributor to launch the company. If you have built a large downline, we want to talk with you asap. This position will be at the forefront of the company, and we are considering giving this position overrides on all company sales. Note, this is a one-time offer to interview with us as our initial Master Distributor positions will no longer be available. If you believe you are capable of helping please contact me here: skipsanzeri@yahoo.com Please send along any detail about downlines you’ve built including size etc. Thanks Skip
Consult your customers before you change your procedures.... - Not sure where this topic should go, but... I just finished reading a rather funny series of posts on MySpace. I belong to a group called WritersCafe. This group also has a webpage, where people post their stories and poems for other people to critique. Apparently, today, the Writers Cafe website has undergone a complete makeover...and its users were taken completely by surprise - apparently no one in charge at Writers Cafe bothered to tell anyone that the format would be changing, or asked for any input on what the changes should be. So there's over 2 pages of complaints on the Writers Cafe group message board, with people saying they can't log in, they dont' like the new design (it looks too "girly" - whatever the heck that means!), and other complaints. And while this only happened today, I have seen other instances of this. Every once in a while yahoo.mail or google groups implements a change in design - and it is never as good as it used to be. Then of course there's the IMDB (internet movie database) which also recently changed its design without telling anyone first or solicting input - and the new design stinks. Fortunately there's a button so you can use the old design, which is what I do... But in all these experiences, the main point of irritation is that no one in "charge" ever asks the people who use their site, if they want changes made and what they should be. It's like they've got all these programmers on staff and have to justify their salaries, so they have them work up "improvements" - but these are techheads who probably don't use the site, so they just do what they like, rather than what users like. The fact that it happens continually, across various businesses, is a rather disturbing trend.
Re: What Do You Outsource Mostly? - Writers are my biggest OS cost, but also have software developers and a marketing team.
Importing from Russia - Hi Master - should you not have some idea of what you want to import? This would make the search easier to find someone.
Re: Importing from Russia - [quote="saraloves":ywo3c5fo]Hi Master - should you not have some idea of what you want to import? This would make the search easier to find someone.[/quote:ywo3c5fo] True! It is a little vague so far...


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

The new marketing question. Will they follow?

Clues to Increase Sales -- Listen to the Buyer

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.