Less Is More: The Minimalist Approach to Effective Writing
Summary: Think you're already a clear writer? You're probably wrong. Here are three tips to help you sharpen your business writing: Cut the noise, embrace active voice, and delete the unnecessary.
(~4 min read)
#1. Business writing = efficient writing
Author Scott Adams writes that early in his corporate career, he noticed that some people in the business world wrote with an impressive clarity and persuasiveness.
At the time, he figured it was because they were especially smart. It never occurred to him that there was some technique that anyone could learn.
“As it turns out, business writing is all about getting to the point and leaving out all the noise. You think you already do that in your writing, but you probably don’t.”
You can see an example of this by editing the above sentence: the word “already” is assumed and therefore unnecessary. Removing it reduces the noise while retaining the same meaning:
“As it turns out, business writing is all about getting to the point and leaving out all the noise. You think you do that in your writing, but you probably don’t.”
Writing in the active voice also helps to clarify your point. It’s easier for our brains to understand concepts that are presented in a certain order.
For example, “The boy hit the ball” is easier to process than “The ball was hit by the boy.”
As Adams notes, it’s a small difference, “but over the course of an entire document, passive writing adds up and causes reader fatigue.”
#2. Be more active—and human
Joel Raphaelson and Kenneth Roman, authors of the book Writing That Works, recommend using the active voice because it “improves your writing by making it more personal, a human being talking rather than an institution.”
The passive voice hides who is speaking or taking action; the active voice reveals it.
Here are some examples:
Instead of this: He should be told.
Try this: Get Alice to tell him.
Instead of this: Personal sacrifices are being made, although the degree of participation is not absolutely identifiable.
Try this: We see people making sacrifices. How many people? We can’t say for sure.
Instead of this: It is respectfully requested that you send a representative to our conference.
Try this: Without a representative from your company, our conference would be …
#3. Solve writing problems by deleting them
Author and teacher William Zinsser suggests in his book On Writing Well that the best solution to a difficult problem in a sentence is often to simply remove it.
Unfortunately, “it is usually the last one that occurs to writers in a jam.”
Before then, the writer will put the troublesome phrase through all kinds of exertions: moving it to some other part of the sentence, adding new words to clarify the thought or to “oil whatever is stuck.”
But these efforts frequently make the situation worse, and the writer is left with the uncomfortable thought that there is no solution.
When you’re at such an impasse, Zinsser recommends asking yourself: Do I need it at all?
Probably not: “It was trying to do an unnecessary job all along – that’s why it gave you so much grief.”
Quote of the week
“I think it’s far more important to write well than most people realize. Writing doesn’t just communicate ideas; it generates them. If you’re bad at writing and don’t like to do it, you’ll miss out on most of the ideas writing would have generated.”
- Entrepreneur and investor Paul Graham in his essay Writing, Briefly