Fast food culture and busy modern life make us long for simple and direct information, which makes us hope that all the elements in the article are focused, happy, sad, envious and inspirational, and it is best not to exceed 140 words, and it is best not to let the mobile phone turn pages. A BBC study shows that during the industrial revolution of 1800, British office workers received more information in one day than industrial workers did in their lifetime. It is the basic requirement of every writer to compress the number of words, improve the density of words and write words that readers like.
The secret of shorthand is to teach writers to write well and write little. This is a skillful and systematic writing structure, rather than simply referring to "shocking headlines" and "cultural drugs that provoke anxiety and opposition". As the author of this book said, "the purpose of short essays is to subtly express the theme of literature, control wisdom and think about the inspiration of sentences."
Perhaps you are still hesitating whether the fast-paced writing will lose the literariness of reports and articles, but you might as well follow Clark's "shorthand", get close to this ever-changing world, work hard to streamline your writing skills, and learn to write short words that the public likes and work needs.
People like short essays, just as people like straightforward truth. The short epitaph is the summary of the deceased's life, the famous epigram is the crystallization of the wisdom of predecessors, and hundreds of words of inscriptions reproduce days of our lives, poems, letters, diaries, lyrics and telegrams. These essays convey inspiring national speeches, love and hate of talented people and beautiful women, and news that spans mountains and rivers. By analyzing traditional essays, authors and readers can learn a good essay. Although The Simplified Book defines the structure of a good article in terms of word order, grammar, structure and language, it is not as clear as Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.
1863, Lincoln made this speech at the opening ceremony of the Gettysburg National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, mourning the soldiers who died in the Battle of Gettysburg for five and a half months. This is the most famous speech in American history. The standard Gettysburg address has 269 words. At that time, the hostile speaker Everett prepared a speech for two hours. Everett won the two speeches in both form and specification. He has beautiful words and solemn words, like a precious vase in a museum, which is worth watching with a magnifying glass. But compared with the effect, the superficial and honest Lincoln gave the correct answer to the topic of this speech just like solving a math problem. He summed up the central idea of the rally in his two-minute speech. He replaced high-profile and boastful political terms with plain language. Concise, direct to the goal, surprising and touching people's hearts, a good composition makes people sincerely feel the information conveyed by words.
Although the two-minute speech is very short, it has fully and clearly expressed Lincoln's meaning and made these contents resound through the audience. Afterwards, his opponents refused to accept him and criticized him for being too short, too superficial and rude to the public. But in the eyes of the public, Lincoln's language is flexible, organized, rhythmic, emotional and persuasive. It is commendable that although the whole speech is very short, Mr. Lincoln didn't just pile up short sentences to complete the full text. In fact, the last paragraph of the speech is a long sentence of 82 words, which accounts for almost 1/3 of the whole article. With emotion, he shed his flashy coat and created the most exciting political statement in American history. A good paper, like this speech, should be short and surprising, and to the point.
When you learn to write short essays, the most important thing in short essay writing is to achieve your goals. Usually, the purpose of writing a short essay is to pay tribute to and remember, summarize and define, sell and persuade, report and narrate, contact and think, but the ultimate goal is to attract readers' attention. Understandably, unexpected is the advanced state of essay writing. Readers keep up with the writing ideas in a short space, but they are often unexpected. In return for readers' attention, writers should always promise to write short and valuable things. What is good prose? I think the first point is simplicity and surprise. As an author, you should make sure that your writing is concise and worth reading.
As we all know, Hu Shi is an advocate of the New Culture Movement in China. 1in the autumn of 934, Hu Shi was in Peking University. When he went to the podium as usual and talked about the advantages of his vernacular Chinese, some conservative students who were obsessed with classical Chinese could not help but feel resistant. At this time, meaningful Hu Shi didn't notice at all. The academic atmosphere of Peking University is relaxed and strong, and the advantages and disadvantages of students and teachers as consultants for vernacular Chinese conflict. A student interrupted Hu Shi and said, "Mr. Hu, is there really no shortcoming in vernacular Chinese?" Hu Shi first paused, then faced the protester in class and smiled habitually: "No". In just three words, the students' indignation was easily brushed back. However, Hu Shi's dexterity, as if nothing had happened, made this classmate retort even more angrily: "The vernacular is not refined enough, and telegrams use more words and spend more money." After hearing this, Hu Shi still smiled and replied: "Not necessarily. A friend of the Executive Yuan telegraphed me the other day and invited me to be the secretary of the Executive Yuan. I don't want to go into politics and decided not to go. I replied to this matter and refused. Telegrams are written in vernacular, which seems to save words and money. Can you please write a reply in classical Chinese according to my wishes to see if it is a province in vernacular Chinese or classical Chinese? "
Soon some students raised their hands and began to report the number of words. Hu Shi took his time, picking out the shortest one from the numerous telegrams written by students in classical Chinese. The message reads: "I'm too ignorant to be competent. I'm afraid I can't do what I want." After reading it, Hu Shi just shook his head and said with a smile: "Although this article is short, it is really concise, with only twelve words. But you know, my vernacular telegram only uses five words. " When Hu Shi finished, he blurted out: "My five words are' I can't do it, thank you'." If you can't do it "means you are too knowledgeable to be competent;" The word "thank you" not only expresses gratitude to friends for taking the trouble to introduce them, but also implies rejection. From this perspective, whether the language is refined or not lies not in the difference between vernacular Chinese and classical Chinese, but in the proper choice of words.
Hu Shi's proper handling of characters and his desire to go coincide with the mystery of "simplified characters" The way of communication in the fast times is just like the careful choice of words when writing telegrams, which accords with the essence of simplification. Don't talk nonsense, don't change, every word serves the central idea. To meet these three points, we must eliminate redundancy and keep the essence: delete words that have no substantive meaning; Delete words with repeated meanings; Delete words that have been covered by other words; The best essay, at first glance, is concise, but with a little taste, the meaning between the lines will spread out, causing readers to think and associate.
A good essay does not have too many words and complicated structures, but conveys a perfect message with the simplest and sharpest brushwork, just like Mr. Hu Shizhi's vernacular telegram, which is concise, capable and perfect.
News writing uses three common styles, namely, news topic, inverted pyramid and Xinhua. The writing principles of the Wall Street news body are "growing up" and "looking at Ye Zhiqiu". Structurally, from a very personal perspective, then from this small detail, gradually discuss the overall situation, and finally link back to the beginning, which is generally used for in-depth reporting. This way of writing is more humane. Inverted pyramids are just the opposite. It pays attention to "simplicity" and "emphasis on light". It starts with the most important news point, then the second important news point, then the supporting materials and evidence, and finally the supplementary materials. Generally used for breaking news.
The inverted pyramid first appeared during the civil war. In order to report back first, war correspondents use this method to send out the core information of the telegraph office one by one, and then make things clear slowly (by the way, some journalists will continue to send out some bulky things like bibles after finishing serious reports to crowd out the telegraph machine, so that competitors can't send them out. Chalcophora japonica gory, he did such a thing in the "mysterious island". The real chance to develop this system is Lincoln's assassination. The Associated Press first released a news: The president was assassinated in the theater tonight and was seriously injured, with only 12 words. This record was later broken by 1945, or the news of the Associated Press: "President Roosevelt died suddenly today", six words.
Usually, some people mention Xinhua style, which is similar to the argumentative structure of our high school. The beginning is the strategic essence, then the narrative discussion, argument+argument+celebrity quotes+argument, and finally summed up into several parallelism sentences to further enhance the theme. The advantages are majestic, inspiring and exciting after reading. But the disadvantage is that it is easy to get bored.
Everyone is familiar with the text "Hongmen Banquet" in junior high school. Xiang Yu and Liu Bang, the leaders of the anti-Qin army, gave a banquet in Hongmen, a suburb of Xianyang, Qin Dou. The full text is centered on the confession of Liu Bang's Xiang Ying camp, which is divided into three parts: before and after the camp. Beginning with Cao's informer, Xiang Yu decided to attack, ending with Xiang Yu being attacked and Cao being punished. The story unfolds layer by layer according to whether Xiang Yu attacked and whether Liu Bang could escape safely. The plot is ups and downs, the image is vivid, the organization is careful and rigorous, and the language is concise and beautiful. In the face of this historic news event, we find that the inverted pyramid seems to be the best way to write short articles. It is simple, beautiful and full of power.
The writer Ma Boyong once quoted this story when discussing the news system. The same banquet at Hongmen, the inverted pyramid reads: "Liu Bang was assassinated when attending the banquet"; The reporter of The Wall Street Journal would probably name it this way: The Hongmen Banquet, a political crisis that almost broke out; I of Xinhua News Agency named this important news "Pei Gong completes strategic shift, thieves seek bankruptcy".
It is true that different news writing systems will have different emphases, but if they are put on Weibo WeChat, the inverted pyramid structure will become an invincible weapon for writers. It is concise and beautiful, and the narrative is direct. Readers will receive all the information of the text in the first time. In a fast era, mastering an effective writing method will make your writing fluent and hit the bull's eye.
The biggest difference between new media and traditional media lies in: short, flat and fast. "Short" is a long sentence that is irrelevant, so be concise. "Flat" means that the structure cannot be inclined, the branches are staggered, and the structure should be coherent and flat. "Fast" means that words have a sense of rhythm in turn, and they are done in one go. In a word, it is to make readers read "cool"! According to today's headline statistics, there are too many words in the article, the words are not short enough, and the speed is not fast enough. Readers will abandon the pit in a few seconds. After all, in an era when content is overflowing and attention is precious, why should the author read your article carefully? Therefore, it is advisable to use 2000-3000 words for articles in general new media, and try to make your views and ideas clear within this number of words. "Short, flat and fast" is not an elective style of new media, but a compulsory course.
If we want to base ourselves on the media era, we can't be noble and Leng Yan, and write some flowery and obscure long articles. But don't get me wrong, thinking that short, flat and fast means fast food without depth. You know, the master speaks concisely, and three or two sentences can make a meaningful statement. Simplification is not necessarily just a low-end explosion, it may be a deeper ancient classic, or it may be news with fewer words. Simplicity comes from careful choice, not simple and rude compression.
The writer can adjust the rhythm by changing the rhythm, for example, in a paragraph composed of two or more sentences, a long sentence is used in front of it, and then a short sentence is used to stop suddenly, leaving the reader wanting more. You can keep the binary structure, draw the ternary structure, and use two words with opposite meanings, such as switch, bump, good and evil. Create conflicts and sparks for the article.
Writing is a laborious job. We try to shorten sentences so that readers can absorb the connotation of the article more easily. The rhythm of "short, flat and fast" allows writers to comfortably write concise words to meet the requirements of the fast food era.
The best essay, at first glance, is concise and clear, but with a little taste, the meaning between the lines will spread out, causing readers to think and associate. The secret of writing a good article is to write every sentence clearly. Every invalid word and long word can be a short word, every adverb with the same meaning has been embodied in the verb, and every passive structure makes readers uncertain who is doing what. These all weaken the power. Many writers only have time to write a long article at most, and then they have no time to try to shorten it. I think this is what editors should do. And those long speeches, at last, seem so soft and useless.
The author of this book tries his best to explain the mystery and writing skills of short essays, but he never encourages the author to write short essays persistently. Only when the author and the reader are of the same mind can they move their hearts. The grandiose society has made people feel bored. If you return to a slightly excellent mind, you can only remember the ancients, and if you are bored, you can only travel to the future. Words deserve to be treated with caution. In the ever-changing information age, people have to master concise writing methods, but returning to the heart and pursuing freedom is also an art full of aesthetic feeling. How to make good use of the short and pithy writing mysteries in long masterpieces to make the articles hit the theme directly and be concise and easy to understand.