Brevity is the Soul of Wit

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Из курса от партнера University of Colorado Boulder

Business Writing

701 оценка

University of Colorado Boulder

Business Writing

701 оценка

Курс 1 из 4 — Specialization Effective Communication: Writing, Design, and Presentation

Writing well is one of the most important skills you can learn for success in the business world. Knowing how to write well allows you to deliver your ideas with the power they deserve. Good writing also conveys a sense of your professional excellence to the world around you. In this course, you'll master the simple, effective skills that drive all successful business writing. You'll create impactful documents that not only showcase your ideas, but showcase your own professionalism to your audience. The principles you learn in this course enable you to become a great business writer. They also provide the foundation for moving into Graphic Design and Successful Presentation, so that you can unleash your best professional self whenever--and however--you present your ideas in the workplace.

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Activate Your Voice!

So, you've started to write a document . . . Module Four takes you beyond the scaffold and good grammar to provide you with specific tips that will elevate your language, infuse your writing with clarity, and amp up your ability to communicate your ideas effectively. Every lesson in this module is based on the principles you learned in Module One, and they form a checklist of techniques that you can apply to any business document to insure your ideas shine on the page. Short videos on emails and longer documents give you simple techniques for applying the lessons of this course to a broad range of your work.

Writing IS Revision3:18

Check Your Scaffold1:18

Keep It Simple4:43

Brevity is the Soul of Wit5:06

Dave on How Logo Design Reflects Brevity and Clarity5:22

Always be Specific; Avoid Generalities and Jargon5:04

Познакомьтесь с преподавателями

Dr. Quentin McAndrew
Instructor
Department of English, University of Colorado Boulder

Another great editing trick that goes closely with simplicity is brevity.

Brevity means brief.

When we were as brief as possible, we begin to lighten our writing.

We get rid of excess words that weigh it down,

which leads us to the ninth principle of good writing.

Activate your voice.

[SOUND] The line, brevity is the soul of wit, is from Shakespeare's great play,

Hamlet.

In the play, Polonius, a character who's quite a windbag, delivers a long,

convoluted explanation.

In the middle of it, he says, brevity is the soul of wit.

Shakespeare's making fun of Polonius.

Polonius goes on and on and on.

And on and on, much to the aggravation and frustration of his audience.

We don't want to be Polonius.

He can't self edit, and he's not aware.

Unlike Polonius, you want to be very mindful as a communicator.

You want to edit to be as concise and clear as you can, and

you want to avoid repetition.

You want to cut as many extra sentences or words from your draft as possible.

One of the best things you can do to improve your writing

is to actually cut your word count by a third to a half.

Set yourself that goal and see what happens.

The great martial artist, Bruce Lee, has a quote that I like to think about when I

edit, which really encapsulates the primary technique of good revision,

that is hack away at the unessential.

Remember, we are going for the best possible reading experience for

your audience.

The more words you can cut whilst still maintaining your point, the better and

more forceful you'll be.

Brevity really comes down to two editing steps.

First, keep your sentences short.

And second, cut as many sentences and words as you can.

In terms of keeping your sentences short.

Here's the rule, if a sentences goes from more than two lines,

you need to split it in two.

I don't care what that's sentence is or what it says.

If it goes for more that two lines,

you need to do the work to split it in two to make it more readable.

Let's look at this example.

This sentence is too long.

How do I know?

Because it looks too long.

For business writing, you don't need any other analytical tool than that.

So we need to do the work to split it in two.

I'm going to put a period after growth and capitalize sense.

That's already better but just marginally.

Now we need to cut words.

So let's get to work on this.

I'm going to start with our thorough analysis of the financial statements of

Zeta Corporation.

First of all, do we really need thorough?

Isn't that part of the job of analysis to be thorough?

I don't really need to say it, so I'm going to cut it.

Then I'm going to cut off the financial statements.

And rearrange and put financial back in, so that the sentence begins

our financial analysis of Zeta Corporation, which is much more brief.

Then, I like the rest of the sentence, reveals a spotless financial record, and

a strong year-on-year growth.

To me, that's the crux of the findings, in its direct writing.

Good.

But, since there are no red flags, or cause for worry,

just repeats the idea that they have a spotless financial record, doesn't it?

If they have a spotless financial record, by default there are no red flags or

cause for worry.

I'm going to cut this phrase entirely.

I also don't need indicates.

The connection between the sentence is obvious without it.

My final edit is our financial analysis of Zeta Corporation

reveals a spotless financial record and strong year-on-year growth.

They are an excellent candidate for acquisition.

Here's our final edit on top with the original sentence on the bottom.

Uhoh, I see that in our final version,

I repeat financial twice in the same sentence.

As I look, I realize that financial analysis

is implied by the context of the sentence and by the second financial.

I can cut the first one.

And end up with an even better sentence.

Two quick pointers that will help you with this process.

One, when you're editing your documents, remember that it's really simple to cut

adjectives and adverbs, especially if you have a string of them.

For instance, the thorough, well-considered,

well-organized report is unnecessary.

The excellent report, or maybe just that report will do.

The second quick way to cut words is to cut qualifiers and amplifiers,

like very, really, or somewhat.

Also connecting phrases like in fact, possibly, and

generally can almost always go.

Cutting extra words makes the reading experience more direct.

It cleans up the window pane of your writing so that your ideas shine through.

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