Three Ways to Write Articles That Get Read on note 3: Write Briefly

[Conclusion] Great writing is short

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In this series, as a spin-off of "Books I've Read", I am introducing "things I keep in mind to get the articles I write on note read". This is the third installment.

3. Write briefly

People who post on note surely want others to read their work, even if just a little. If you are writing as a diary or memo and "don't care if anyone reads it", please ignore this article.

The first installment was on the theme of "writing from the reader's perspective", and the second was on "writing logically". This time, the theme is "writing briefly".

Note that this time, I am focusing on essays and editorials on note and social media; novels, poetry, and printed books are excluded.

Including myself, "web readers are impatient". They lack the patience to read long things and are lazy. They won't read articles that are too long. To get such people to read, it is necessary to "make the text as short as possible while still being understandable".

(1) Shorten sentences

Long sentences have complex structures and become difficult to read. Pay attention to the following points.

a. Write only one thing per sentence

b. "Do not write long sentences using conjunctive particles like 'ga' (but), 'node' (because), or 'noni' (although)."

c. Omit conjunctions if the meaning is clear without them

d. Do not use excessive modifiers

e. Keep the subject and predicate close together. This will inevitably make the sentences shorter.

(2)Keep paragraphs short

A paragraph is a group of sentences separated by content. It is delimited by line breaks.

Paragraphs that never have line breaks make people lose the desire to read..

For a screen width of about 60 characters per line, I keep them to within 5 lines (within 300 characters).

(3)Keep the article short

Here, "article" refers to the entire piece of writing.

When articles become long, their structure becomes complex and difficult to understand. Keep the following in mind:

a. One theme per article

b. Decide on your destination (conclusion) before writing

c. Do not write sentences that are not necessary for the meaning to be understood

d. If it looks like it will get too long, split the article and carry it over to the next installment

After writing an article, always revise it to find mistakes or unclear parts. Having someone you know read it is also good.

Furthermore, delete sentences you think are unnecessary. In my case, I sometimes shorten it to as little as one-third to half of the original length.

I understand the desire to write down everything you feel. However, to get people to read it, keep sentences, paragraphs, and the article short. By keeping it short, you can save the reader's time. Also, the writing becomes concise and will resonate more with the reader.

Conclusion. Someone once said: Great writing is short.

It is a masterpiece.

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