Flyer Computer Resources, LLC - Saint Louis, MO

We now live in an age of the short phrase.

This occurred long before Twitter.  It occurred whenever the advertising age began.  Slogans, jingles, taglines, catchphrases are all part of the genre of writing little.

With the 21st centruty infusion of social media we are immersed in the art of writing little more than ever.

Christopher Johnson, author of Microstyle: The Art of Writing Little states “Microstyle is all about expressive economy in language: getting a lot of idea out of a little message.”  This goes way beyond advertising and tweets.  It is about your emails at work.  How do you write subject lines?  How do you frame the introductions to meetings?  It is about writing a blog headline or a newsletter title.  It is about using words creatively or as Johnson puts it, descriptively.  This is opposed to the prescriptive mode of language with its rules and such.  While language rules do need to be followed, they can be bent.  If you have any interest in being an interesting writing, you will learn to bend them in creative ways.

Here are ten take away lessons from his book:

1. Pay attention to the language around you in the spirit of appreciation and curiosity: We often use language without thinking about it nor giving it special attention. If you write, for any reason, busines or pleasure, you need to take the time to appreciate language.  I am not talking about appreciating the rules governing the use of an apostrophe.  It is more in line with appreciating the art you can create with words.  And yes, you can view your emails to your boss at work as pieces of art.  In my “real job” as a manager, my boss commends me all the time for the concise, clear emails that communicate both respect and the problem at hand.  It doesn’t come easy.  Writing a good email is sometime hard work.  I once spent a whole afternoon working on one email.  It was probably more like two days as it stirred around in my head that long.  So work at your writing, but do so from the perspective of being curious and artful. You will have more fun that way.
2. You do not pack a lot of meaning into a small message, rather a small message is a key to a door that opens meaning:  It is tough to be concise.  It takes work. But don’t try too hard.  Do not murder language. Use it.  Be concise. BUT remember, being concise OPENS the door.  You do not have to pack a sentence with the entire meaning of the book.  When Dickens wrote “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”, he did not pack the entire meaning of A Tale of Two cities into that intro.  But
3. Clarity: This is the 3rd most important lesson I learned.  I remember having to do some reading back in college.  I checked out the prescribed articles and spent a whole evening struggling through the material.  It was not because the topic was difficult.  This particular professor could not write to save his life.  I went back to class asking “What was this author trying to say?”.  Upon receiving the answer, I asked, “Well, why didn’t he say so!”.  Our writing can often obfuscate out thoughts.  It muddles the waters.  Work hard to be clear and your readers will love you.
4. Microstyle was once for specialists (marketers and ad brokers) but now it is for everyone: If you are reading this, then you must spent some significant portion of your time online.  If you do, then you are exposed to microstyle all the time.  If you write on the web, then microstyle is something you must learn to do well.  Whether it is post titles or email subject lines, your ability to write the microstyle way can lead to your online success.
5. Deciding what to leave out – you can’t tell the whole story nor every detail:  Think of the best posts you have ever read online.  Think of the topic they were about.  Did those posts cover EVERYTHING?  No.  They did not.  They were focused. They used details to move the main message instead of using details to burden the message (we do the latter ALL the time).  Do you have a friend who you stop after ten minutes of non-stop talking and ask, “Dude, get to your point!” That person needs to decide what to leave out so they can get to the point more quickly.
6. There is a fine line between stupid and clever – master ambiguity:  I think this occurs when you have begun to master language at some level. For me, this seems far away.  Any attempt on my behalf is bent on being stupid.  It is a fine line.  Dare to be clever, but be prepared to be seen as stupid at least the first one hundred times you try.
7. Say the Wrong Thing: On purpose.  This takes some courage. But saying the wrong thing on purpose is a way to not just get attention, but can breath new life into boring topics.  In other words, break the writing/blogging rules every once in a while.  Break the social conventions every once in a while.  Try being politically incorrect at least once.
8. The Art of Rhythm:  Most easily seen in ad copy or poetry, rhythm is something that is taken for granted in prose.  But is prose microstyle?  Of course, it is but that is beyond this post.  There is a natural rhythm to language that will emerge when you strive to right well.  A blog post can be full of rhythm. While it is not often attempted, it certainly can occur.
9. Description vs Prescription:  The prescribers seek to make sure the language rules are known and followed. Do we need them? Yes.  Funny though how the attempts to govern language sometimes kill it.  the describers recognize the language rules but seek to write for the love of writing.  They want to see what language can do. How it can be stretched. How it can accomplish great things.  Lesson #9 is connected with lesson #10.
10. Language bends and it should: One of the main themes of the book: have fun with language.  This was a refreshing message to me.  For a long time I have wanted to improve my grammar (I still should) but it was daunting.  I didn’t want to take a class, so I checked out a book from the library.  Wow that was boring.  Can’t say my grammar improved.  However, if I go into such an effort with the attitude that language is fun, then maybe I WILL learn the actual difference between its and it’s.

I leave you with an example Johnson provides in the book of someone who uses language creatively yet concisely.  Enjoy!