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CertainlyWorse  No one is coming. It's just you.  6mo ago (text post)   1469 thread views

Speechcraft and Pithiness: Give your tips here

This isn't a large question. Because of the users we have here, I think we could all benefit from short sharp tips to edit our own words.

In this topic, can you provide advice on how to curate yourself when you throw words in speech and on 'paper'.

Links to 'speechcraft' sources are appreciated.

I'll start:

  • Take a second to think about how someone else would hear your words if they were you. (rule 0)
  • Curate and cut your words before you throw them.
  • "Brevity is the soul of wit" - Hamlet - Shakespeare.
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In our “infinite things to read” age, everyone should start by mentioning unusual conclusions or interesting bits of information at the start of a post. If the conclusion isn’t deemed unusual or if interesting bits aren’t considered interesting enough, then it’s easy to opt out of reading. Even reading three paragraphs needlessly in a day winds up saving you a whole book of reading a year. It adds up.

What is the advantage of this over reading effortposts starting with the concluding paragraph?

tl;dr: putting the unique info up front gives the reader the most important bit first, then lets them decide if they want to wade into the details.

See also: abstracts in scientific papers. I could expand farther on my point with examples, but I frontloaded so much of the main idea there's not much meaningful stuff left to say.

Also, putting the tldr at the bottom of a post is bad netiquette used by people that don't grasp the literal attitude of too long; didn't read.

I'm ambivalent about the idea. I absolutely hate wannabe writers taking out their frustrations on news articles, and enjoy it when someone arranges the info in the exact manner you describe*, and yet somehow it feel blasphemous to the written word, and when I write I gravitate to "gather 'round, I'ma tell you a story" style myself.

*) Funnily enough the only newspaper I'm aware of that's doing this is the Daily Mail.

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