Youre wasting your readers time. Heres how to change, in just six words: Brevity is confidence. Length is fear.
This guiding principle turned first Politico and then Axios into hugely influential media companies. Its also in the dna of Smart Brevity, the Axios spin-off that teaches Fortune 500 companies, organizations, professional writers and other individuals how to get their message heard. Now theyve distilled their lessons into an essential guideand manifestofor writing effectively in the digital age.
Smart Brevity is a system and strategy that will teach anyone who works with words how to think more sharply, communicate more crisply, and save your readers time. Its about how to say more with less. And how, on a deeper level, to clean up and reframe your thinking.
Youll learn how to create a muscular teasethe thing that will flag down your readers attention. How to craft a ledea short, sharp, memorable opening sentence. How to round up, prioritize, weigh and whittle down your most important points. There are dozens of tips chosing the right words, kicking bad habits (hello, irony), and staying provocative. And rules-of-thumb: Would you read it if you hadnt written it?
Today were drowning in words. Back when the authors worked at The Washington Post, web trackers revealed an eye-opening truth: hardly anyone it clicked through a storys first page. Heres how to fight through that fatigue and ensure that your message is finally and fully heard.
