The Sanford Berenberg Experience: Message of the Day - Size and Clarity (Less is Not Always More)

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Message of the Day - Size and Clarity (Less is Not Always More)

Good Morning,

I have been called long winded in my messages, and on some level that is true (unless you are considering my speaking, in which case, that is definitely true). That is, until I came across an interesting fact about the world’s longest sentence in English.

William Faulkner in his work “Absalom Absalom” has a sentence which is a measly 1,287 words. Some other works like James Joyce’s Ulysses has a sentence with some 12,931 words. And others list even more words in a single sentence. Luckily I could not actually find these sentences on the web, or I might have been tempted to copy them here to show my messages are shorter….

The shortest sentence, in comparison is one (1) word, for example “Really?” or “Yes!”.

To the point:

Getting a message across using written or spoken language is almost always going to require the use of words. Sure there are gurgles and burps which convey a treasure trove of information, but the sentence is often the tool of choice when sharing information.

Shorter is better, and even shorter is even better, but if there is no clarity, then less is really not more.

In our drive to simplify and streamline, we need to make sure that we do not lose our message in the process.

One tool that I have been using to help reduce the size of my communications (yes, I have been trying) is twitter sized messages.

Using the website www.ping.fm, I have been sending out Learn and Grow Daily Tips of the day which are 140 characters or less. These usually entail messages that are too short for messages of the day, and can be stated in a few short sentences. When I craft them, I am forced to edit and reduce my verbiage to provide a short clear statement.

I believe that this has been helpful in increasing my message clarity while also reducing word count.

Enjoy!

Sanford Berenberg

Sanford@berenberg.net
http://www.berenberg.net

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/
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