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What
intimidates today’s readers?
When people take
a writing course, they expect to hear a lot about the importance
of clarity and conciseness. However, in my mind they are out
of date on their emphasis.
Fifteen years ago,
everyone was concerned about plain language and getting a
message completely on one page. And often times to do this,
they merely reduced the type font, decreased the margins and
collapsed the paragraphs. But this is the one way to guarantee
your ideas will not get read.
Today’s
business readers are easily intimidated by a busy-looking
page – whether it be a paper or screen document. They
glance at the first paragraph and, if it appears lengthy,
they immediately decide the document is going to be difficult
to read so they skim it or put it aside for when they have
more time. (And "more time" seldom happens.)
Now don’t
get me wrong – clarity and conciseness are important
in a business document. But if your document does not have
visual appeal, readers will not take the time to find out
you can write clearly and concisely.
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