Wemust concede it’s at times toomany ‘words’ (in the pieces that we write) that have elicited views of some friends about being lengthy and consequently less readable. In our old friends’W’App chat, I was asked to give my views on an exhaustive article which I did in an explanatory style. Curt response from acynic friend was ‘Executive Summary Please !’ (yes, quite likeones we used to submit to our Bank Bosses since they were supposed to be loaded with plethora of bulky notes & files). To me it was a reminder of the academic importance of that ‘French’ word called ‘Precis’ !
For the uninitiated, word ‘Precis’ means summarizing the process of writing a lengthy passage that can be described in a few words without changing it’s main theme or idea. ‘Precis’ writing got us fair marks from teachers but working at our Bank it was more challenging since a ‘Summary’meant a well-presented form of statements or notes containing headings& sub-headings, that Bosses could put the fingers on.The catch was workmanlike details were left for officers to incorporate in main proposal.But, retired citizens like us now have an unhindered liberty to express without a word limit and many have the propensity to talk & write at length!Of course, they repeat !
However, this is the age of short forms, abbreviations & minimal one-wordresponses since millennial and Gen Zee have little time to read. This is often attributed to ‘low attention span’ & ‘let’s get on with it’ syndrome ! If a heartfelt, emotional message receivesa one-word reply (or worse, is ignored), that’s sad for thesender. It’s heart-breaking getting a cryptic ‘Thanks’ toprofoundly expressed thoughts. An anecdote goes that late EnglishCaptain& ace commentator, Tony Grieg was once giving a longish speech at a felicitation ceremony. Turning to his wife in the audience he asked “Did you ever in your wildest dreams, think I’d come this far..’ to which she promptly countered ‘But, you’ve never appeared in my wildest dreams’ !
The incomparable Shakespearegave us the famous lines ‘Brevity is the Soul of Wit’ ! When it comes to humourand reparteeit must be crisp, shortand have punch in it. Every stand-up comic artist these days uses a maximum of three sentences before the final punchline to get the laughs, else he must face the boos !A much-married family man was asked to say ‘Do Shabdh’ at the family event where the relatives were speaking endlessly. He got up, said ‘Thank You’ and sat down, having played his part.
What’s the ideal length forarticles (or talks)?At times they’re fixed by thepublishers. Organisers request speakers to be short. Butunhindered freelancers write their hearts out their own way to make an impact. Yet, there’s no guarantee that they’llbe read !
Working on Living 