Is a publishing professional with more than twenty years of

2. Keep It Short and Simple
The Ten Commandments required fewer than 300 words, and 
Abe  Lincoln  only  needed  271  for  the  Gettysburg  Address.  You 
should  try  to  express  yourself  in  as  few  words  as  possible,  sav-
ing your time and the reader’s. Remember that attention spans are 
short, and getting shorter.
Cut out each and every word that you don’t really, really, really 
need. Don’t even say “in order to” if a simple “to” will do.
Make your words easy to read by highlighting the main ideas. 
You can emphasize an idea by
•  putting it first;
•  using underlining, boldface, or larger type;
•  breaking  a  list  out  from  paragraph  form  with  bullets  (you’re 
reading one now);
•  breaking thoughts into separate sections with subtitles.
Eschew obfuscation. Pardon me. I mean keep it simple and clear.
Plain  talk  is  always  best.  Simple,  direct  language  takes  less 
time to compose and less time to understand.
When you encounter a document bristling with ponderous ter-
minology, you can be fairly certain that it was written by a com-
mittee, is a government product, or the author has something to 
hide. Unless you fall into one of those categories, keep it simple.

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