Simple Writing Pays Off (Literally)
I stole this headline from a Harvard Business Review article. The literal in this case is, well, literal.
[Sidebar: Are we all going to stand idly by while “literal”, literally becomes synonymous with figurative? My British friends blame Americans and vice versa. I say a pox on both our houses, it’s happening, let’s put out the fire and figure out who started it later]
The article highlights research showing less readable, corporate annual reports correlate with a 2.5% drop in market value.
They use a readability measure called the Fog Index based on handbook standards though it shares some (not all) of the recommendations we make using our Copy Optimizer “Readability” measure that helps copy feel more like a personal letter. Both the Fog Index and our Readability score…
- eschew adverbs and adjectives that make the copy feel clumsy and tell vs. show, respectively
- rewards shorter words. This ain’t a thesaurus competition and nobody cares about your proper nouns
- shorter sentences – the period can never come soon enough.
The explanation behind all this is “processing fluency”, a term that could use it’s own readability editing.
More simply, all the nouns, long words, adjectives and prepositions are like speed bumps to reading. On this road, there is always an alternative path called, “not reading.”
Kevin
One response to “Simple Writing Pays Off (Literally)”
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Thank you. Given our profession is still maturing, simplicity is a proper direction. Having 50 years in the profession, discovered many authors have the answer and choose to put a series of big words which when stripped away the arrogance, fundraising at what ever level still comes down to
1. Identify a proper donor
2. Qualify that donor to have the resources to meet your expectations
3. Educate not cultivate the donor on the merits of your mission and the project. (Few understand what even the word cultivate means)
4. Solicit the donor giving them maximum flexibility to fulfill your desires.
5. Recognitive the donor in the manner that will mean the most to them. Could be simple of grand.
6. Start the process all over again.
It was true and simple 50 years ago and while technology, insight, efficiencies all contribute to the success. It is these 5 simple words we use over and over again.