Writers come from all different backgrounds. But, for those who studied at university, there’s a steep learning curve when leaving education and writing professionally.

Universities often accept long, wordy, indulgent prose. Essays include an intro and a conclusion. Complex language and tricky words are encouraged.

But, when you’re writing for a wider audience, none of these features translate well.

Why not? Because people have short attention spans. And the way we consume media is changing rapidly. Writers must adapt to a modern audience where we no longer have 2,000 words to get our points across. In many cases, we won’t even have 2,000 characters.

Not only that, but long sentences can be confusing. As can long words. Using complicated language might show off your extensive vocabulary, but it will also make your content unreadable for those who don’t understand it.

Keep. It. Short.

Short, succinct copy is not a new concept. It was William Shakespeare’s character Polonius who quipped ‘Brevity is the soul of wit’ in Hamlet – and that was around the year 1600!

But it’s easy to argue that brevity has never been as important as it is today. A 2019 study in Demark confirmed that attention spans are shortening across the globe. It showed that we have more things to focus on, which means we attribute less time to each of them.

What does this mean for your copy? You need to get your message across using simple, straightforward language.

How to sharpen up your copy and keep it simple

There are plenty of common mistakes writers make which can easily be tweaked to improve copy. Here are three tips to help keep your copy succinct and readable:

1. Remove synonyms

You’ll often spot writers trying to be descriptive by using more than one adjective. But, if it has a very similar definition, this often adds nothing to the meaning.

If you’re saying the same thing more than once, pick the most fitting word and bin the rest.

Example

Before: The hot, scorching sun made him feel sweaty, clammy and moist.

After: The scorching sun made him feel clammy.

• Shorten your sentences

Break down your sentences as much as possible. If you’re using multiple commas in a sentence, see if you can shuffle your words around to work in a full stop. Keep sentences short and sharp, so readers can follow what you’re saying.

Contrary to what you may have been taught in school, there’s nothing wrong with using ‘and’ or ‘but’ to begin a sentence. And it can be quite helpful to create shorter sentences. But don’t do it all the time.

Example

Before: She made her way across the room, carefully carrying the murder weapon behind her back, and shuffled round the table in front of her where the prime suspect was seated, until she arrived at the trap door, where she quickly buried the evidence.

After: She made her way across the room, carrying the murder weapon carefully behind her back. The prime suspect was seated at the table in front of her. She shuffled round until she reached the trap door. And quickly buried the evidence.

• Use simple language

Just because you can use a long word, it doesn’t mean you should. The majority Most of the time, the opposite is true.

Using short language which is easy to digest means you will reach a wider audience. Avoid overly-complex words and field-specific jargon. It will allow more people to read your work. As Charles Bukowski wrote in Notes of a Dirty Old Man:

“An intellectual is a man who says a simple thing in a difficult way; an artist is a man who says a difficult thing in a simple way”

Example:

Before: The quadruped absconded from his alfresco residence expeditiously.

After: The dog ran from his kennel quickly.

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