Team Blog

Blaise Pascal once wrote, "I have made this letter longer than usual, only because I have not had the time to make it shorter."

Let's trim and regroup a paragraph for maximum effect.

Here's a draft paragraph: (137 words)

"Good writing is marked by certain traits - it is short, elegant, and effective. Good writing is the core of search engine optimization and online advertising and marketing. It is also the essence of your message to the customer. It gives the customer a call to action, for our purposes, or it provides prospects with information to support their decision to use you. When I review my drafts; I always see several layers of improvements waiting to be made. I mercilessly strike out probably 50 to 60 percent of my words when I write, no matter how much I feel they contribute. This is necessary to reduce word count, redundancy, and aimless sentences, and to reorganize text into its most effective order. I revise my tightest writing three to 10 times until I feel it passes muster."

Now, the revision: (55 words!)

"Good writing is search engine optimization and marketing. It contains only your essential message - giving your customer a brief education, sales pitch, and compelling call to action. The first draft is a place to gather ideas. Later, remove items that don't drive your point forward, and organize your text to develop its full power."

DRAFT:
Topic goes first, or last
Gather ideas freely, later edit to desired word count

REVIEW:
   •  Outline frequently
   •  Ask: How? What? Why? Always answer these questions!
   •  Strike prepositional phrases, redundancy, and all fillers
   •  Change passive to active voice
   •  Preserve core meanings
   •  Play with words - what feels best?
   •  Group similarities
   •  Reduce and regroup, until you have a cohesive message
   •  Capture all unrelated/fleeting thoughts for later

 -- Contributed by Dan Lozano