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Legal Writing

: Manage Your Writing

This week: Send fewer envelopes

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Suppose that next Monday you arrive at your office and find an envelope from me. Inside is a $10 bill. On Tuesday and Wednesday, the same. By Thursday, you're thinking about me during your commute, looking forward with pleasure to opening my envelope. By the time my last envelope arrives on Friday, you're feeling very good about Ken Davis and the $50 I've sent you.

Now suppose instead that Monday's envelope holds a dollar. On Tuesday there's 25 cents; Wednesday, 75 cents. You're intrigued but then disappointed when Thursday's envelope, sealed with strapping tape, holds only a nickel. The letters keep coming, on into the next week and the weeks after, some with as much as a couple of dollars but most with small change. My envelopes become less and less important to you, and they may pile up in a corner. Even if after several months you've received the same $50, you don't feel nearly as good about me. You've simply had to work too hard for the money.

That's how reading is. Reading a word is like opening an envelope: it requires a small but significant amount of work. If each envelope or word contains something of value, we continue with anticipation. If most envelopes or words do not, we become bored and maybe give up.

This week, as you revise, ask yourself "Is this word or sentence worth the effort it will take my readers to open and 'unpack' it? Can I deliver the same value in fewer 'envelopes'?"

Full post as published by Manage Your Writing on February 28, 2011 (boomark / email).