Most online reading is actually skimming and scanning. So to grab and hold our readers' attention, we can't afford to waste words. The trick to writing lean on our blogs and websites is to keep the meaning and cut the rest. Here's how.
- Create meaningful titles and subheads.
- Lead with your main point.
- Keep paragraphs short.
- Turn any series into a bulleted or numbered list.
- Put items in a list in parallel form.
- Don't be afraid to use I, you, and we.
- Stick to the active voice (most of the time).
- Use the imperative when giving tips or instructions.
- Highlight or link key words and phrases.
- Remove irrelevant information and repetitive details.
- Delete meaningless modifiers.
- Ignore any of these tips rather than write something rude, crude, or unclear.
Do these guidelines hold true for all forms of online writing? No. Not if your primary aim is to entertain rather than inform. But if you're writing to make a point, try getting right to the point.
More About Cutting the Clutter:
What do you call a word that can convey opposite meanings depending on how it's used? A word such as sanction, which can mean either "allow" or "prohibit." Or screen, which can mean "conceal" or "show."
In our Glossary of Grammatical & Rhetorical Terms, we call this two-faced creature a Janus word--like the two-headed Roman god.
At least that's one name for it. Depending on your source for language lore, a self-contradictory word is also known as enantionymy, antilogy, contronym, contranym, autantonym, auto-antonym, and contradictanym.
You see, in the fields of grammar and rhetoric, there's always a word for it. And often more than one.
For instance, do you know the term for . . .
- . . . a question that's tacked onto the end of a declarative sentence, like this: "At least we tried, didn't we?"
That's called a tag question. Or, if you prefer, a question tag.
- . . . the substitution of a more offensive word or phrase (such as "coot"
or "geezer") for a nicer one ("old gentleman")?
That would be a dysphemism--the opposite of euphemism.
- . . . a word or phrase that appears to qualify the words both before and after it--as in, "Instructors who cancel classes rarely are reprimanded"?
This ambiguous construction goes by the name squinting modifer (also known as a two-way modifier or a squinting construction).
- . . . a noun (such as jeans or doldrums) that appears only in the plural and does not have a singular form?
Try plurale tantum--a Latin phrase meaning "plural only."
- . . . a text that deliberately excludes a particular letter of the alphabet (such as Ernest Wright's Gadsby--a story of more than 50,000 words that not once uses the letter e)?
That's called a lipogram--from the Greek for "missing letter."
How often will you have an opportunity to use any of these terms? Probably not very often. All right--never. Unless, like me, you're in the habit of pestering friends and colleagues with questions that begin, "Do you know the term for . . . ?"
More About Grammatical & Rhetorical Terms:
Image: Janus, the Roman god of gates and doorways and of beginnings and endings, was customarily depicted with two heads looking in opposite directions
