Single-syllable words can shock, jolt and pop
By Mim Harrison, author of Smart Words
“Samuel Clemens” meanders. “Mark Twain” stands up straight and takes charge.
John F.… Read the full article
Tight writing
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
What would Hemingway do?
Find out with this app
Ever wonder how Ernest Hemingway, the master of tight prose, would have handled your annual report?
Now you can find out.… Read the full article
What would Google do?
Steal 4 SEO tips from the search giant’s own releases
Google issues few press releases: 13 in 2013, 17 in 2014 and just 10 in the first eight months of 2015.… Read the full article
Romance meets finance in this feature
Northern Trust goes beyond the pyramid
How do you organize a compelling feature?
Model this piece, which Loring Leifer wrote for Northern Funds’ marketing magazine, Northern Update.… Read the full article
The long and the short of it
Build drama, create rhythm by varying sentence length
But make every sentence simple and short, and your copy will read like “See Dick run” primers.… Read the full article
Conduct a sound check
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.”… 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
Quotes on conversational writing
What writers and others say
“A conversation is a dialogue, not a monologue. That’s why there are so few good conversations: due to scarcity, two intelligent talkers seldom meet.”
… Read the full articleGet the words out
Write tight sentences, like the Times
How long should your sentences be?
According to the American Press institute:
- When the average sentence length in a piece was fewer than eight words long, readers understood 100% of the story.