…but go easy on adjectives to keep readers hooked

David Bernstein, as ever, makes sense in his latest Private View (DW 21 May).

I’m not sure that short attention spans are anything new, though. People have always been too busy to be blathered at or lectured to.

Good writing is not about spewing out a series of vague and unsubstantiated adjectives and hoping that your prospect will read them. That’s crass laziness on the part of both client and writer. Good writing is grounded in fact and content.

Its skill lies in leading the reader inexorably to a conclusion – not yelling the conclusion at them. If you do this they won’t ever get it – they’ll just walk away. Short reading attention spans are only a problem when you have nothing interesting to say.

Don’t believe me? Bet I can make you eagerly read four closely-typed pages of A4 at one sitting.

How? Simply entitle it ‘All about you’.

Mark McArthur-Christie, Managing director, Freeman Christie, Southrop, Gloucestershire GL7 3NX

 

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