Occasionally I encounter a business person who writes like a long-winded person speaks: many words that stretch out into a long spate of time.
It feels real long in real time.
When you are reading lots of words that exist in real time, too, you have an advantage over a person who is politely listening. The polite person keeps listening. The in-a-hurry reader who needs to be several places at once and whose attention is split in that many directions and will simply stop reading long prose.
For that reason I think that Facebook and Text messaging have been good for business writers. You will not see better or easier-to-read big ideas telegraphed so swiftly and in some ways more entertainingly.
That's what business writing is supposed to do: telegraph big ideas fast to people for whom time is money--and fleeting.
More and more, I pay attention to really good writers on Facebook and other social media sites who have a real knack for condensing a story that needs to be told.
The effectiveness of these headline/updates often works because of the writer's ability to understand who the reader is--and trust that reader.
You don't hear much about that trust of readers in a business writing class, but the dynamic exists. Central to successfully communicating a lesson is the ability to know that the reader will fill in the gaps you leave by writing with brevity and clarity.
It feels real long in real time.
When you are reading lots of words that exist in real time, too, you have an advantage over a person who is politely listening. The polite person keeps listening. The in-a-hurry reader who needs to be several places at once and whose attention is split in that many directions and will simply stop reading long prose.
For that reason I think that Facebook and Text messaging have been good for business writers. You will not see better or easier-to-read big ideas telegraphed so swiftly and in some ways more entertainingly.
That's what business writing is supposed to do: telegraph big ideas fast to people for whom time is money--and fleeting.
More and more, I pay attention to really good writers on Facebook and other social media sites who have a real knack for condensing a story that needs to be told.
The effectiveness of these headline/updates often works because of the writer's ability to understand who the reader is--and trust that reader.
You don't hear much about that trust of readers in a business writing class, but the dynamic exists. Central to successfully communicating a lesson is the ability to know that the reader will fill in the gaps you leave by writing with brevity and clarity.
No comments:
Post a Comment