Economy of Words & Concise Writing
Review Full Length Podcast:
Audio Text
Script
Hello everyone my name is Jeremy Jacobs and I would like to talk to you today about the term Economy of Words and how it can be applied toward communication, especially in terms of digital communication.
Today we communicate on multi level platforms ranging from person to person, telephone, video, email, texting, and through internet blogs to name a few. Each style of communication utilizes the economy of words in that we use different styles of communication for different purposes.
The key to any type of written communication is concise writing especially when utilizing digital platforms of communication. Concise writing comes from an effective usage of the economy of words in that we can use limited sentences to express an idea or opinion rather than entire paragraphs or pages. The economy of words allows us to customize our writing styles to fit the form of communication being conveyed. Digital communication often limits the amount of space allowed for communicating; taking the core concepts from an idea and consolidating it into shorter fragments often makes for easy, clear, and concise writing. The critical concept to remember is that although the information is consolidated vital information must be kept intact.
As an example the following excerpt from Wikipedia about our President Barack Obama can be edited for more concise communication;
“Barack Hussein Obama II born August 4, 1961 is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he was president of the Harvard Law Review. He was a community organizer in Chicago before earning his law degree. He worked as a civil rights attorney in Chicago and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004.”
A more concise version of this excerpt may read as follows:
“Barack Obama is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold office. Obama is a native to Hawaii and earned his degree from Columbia University and Harvard Law School. Obama worked for the City of Chicago as a community organizer, civil rights attorney, and a professor of constitutional law at the University of Chicago before moving into politics.”
This revised excerpt still conveys all the important information from the first excerpt but through the economy of words has been reduced to a more concise form. I hope these tips help everyone in their future communication endeavors.
Thanks for listening to today’s topic and if you would like to research more about this topic please feel free to visit www.dailywritingtips.com and search concise writing.
Tune into future podcasts and feel free to reach out to me with future topic ideas at jjacobs10@student.kaplan.edu
You can also follow me on Twitter at user name jjkaplan79 or you can connect with me on LinkedIn by searching my email address sandman79@rocketmail.com
I look forward to interacting with you all in the future; and we’ll see you next time.
