Outlining

Before you start writing anything, make an outline of what you are going to include in your message. It may be brief (as for a short press release) or comprehensive (as for a large booklet). You will probably modify it as you gather information, but an outline will help to keep your thinking in order.

In the simplest terms, an outline is a list of topics to be written about in the order in which they will be presented. Usually an outline has major topics, and within each major topic there are minor topics.

Sentences and Paragraphs

Sentences should be clear and concise. Longer sentences may often be necessary, but a good test is to go back over the material and see how many sentences can be cut down. Mixing long and short sentences improves the rhythm.

The typical paragraph should normally include only one idea. As a general prac­tice, it ought to be no longer than six or eight lines. If necessary, a longer paragraph may be used, but brevity is preferable. Writing that goes on and on without a pause is hard on the reader.

Word Length

Word length is a good gauge of readability, and every writer should aim to be read. In readable writing, most words are short. A message containing an average of 1,5 syllables per word is considered to be very readable.

Don't try to show off your knowledge by using long, complicated words. Remem­ber that Lincoln's Gettysburg Adress consisted of 267 words, 202 of which had only one syllable.

Word choice

Writers who are college-educated often forget that words common to their vocab­ulary are not readily understood by large segments of the general public.

If your target audience is the general public, remember that a short Anglo-Saxon word is more understandable than a longer one derived from French, Greek, or Latin. The words on the left are better than the words on the right:

buy purchase

home residence

hire employ

try endeavor

total aggregate

improve ameliorate

building edifice

duty, task responsibility

gather, collect accumulate

save economize

enough sufficient

test experiment

able efficient

More complex words, of course, can be used if the target audience is well educated. Most readers of the Wall Street Journal, for example, are college graduates, so the writing is more complex than that found in a small-town daily.

Also, if the target audience is professionals in a field such as law, education, sci­ence, or engineering, the standard for word choice is different. Educators, for example, often seem to like elaborate expressions.

Scientific writing, too, is loaded with esoteric words. Newspaper editors often com­plain that they receive news releases from high-technology companies that are so full of jargon that neither they nor their readers can grasp what is being said.

If your audience is engineers, of course, you can use specialized words and phrases.