Don’t include too many items … or too few
Thank you, David Letterman.
The Top 10 list rules the web — or at least, Buzzfeed.… Read the full article
Cut Through the Clutter
World technology literacy skills: bad and getting worse
21% of adults are technologically illiterate
Just 7% of adults around the world can manage conflicting requests to reserve a meeting room using a reservation system, then email people to let them know whether they got the room they requested.… Read the full article
Write like Churchill — in one-syllable words
‘Short words are best, and old words when short are the best of all’
What do you notice about this passage, excerpted from an article in The Economist?… Read the full article
Don’t commit verbicide: Choose verbs, not nouns
Action words streamline syllables
This just in, writes one of my favorite correspondents, sharing a sentence his subject matter expert has written:
Somebody just kill me now, my friend writes.… Read the full article
What is clarity in writing
Stop these institutional mistakes for readability
Want to make sure you’re not eradicating clarity in your organization?
Slaughter these problems instead, suggest Martin J. Eppler, Ph.D.,… Read the full article
What closet tidying taught me about editing
Audition your words to go in, not out
When Lynn Wylie, aka Best Sister Ever, sent me an Unfancy blog post arguing that all you need to look great every day is a capsule wardrobe of 37 items per season, I scoffed.… Read the full article
Stop wasting web visitors’ time with puffery
Web visitors ‘get visibly angry’ at verbose sites
Here’s an interesting dichotomy: Killing time is the killer app for mobile devices. But mobile users are in a hurry and “get visibly angry” at verbose sites that waste their time.… Read the full article
Why avoid adjectives or adverbs?
They make journalists cry ‘hype’ & more
Why cut adjectives and adverbs from your copy?
Because modifiers:
1. Strike journalists as hype
Writing media relations pieces?… Read the full article
Avoid the suitcase lead
Try a bikini lead instead
Some folks write “suitcase leads”: They try to cram all of the story elements into the top. Instead, make yours a bikini lead, and cover just the most interesting essentials.… Read the full article
‘Dear Mother’
Write a letter to make your copy conversational
“Good writers are visible just behind their words.”
— William Zinsser, author, On Writing Well
Eliot Fette Noyes was a Harvard-trained architect and industrial designer.… Read the full article