Information Sells

Learn From Great Speakers

Great speakers are great writers.

If you want to learn to communicate, there is no better teacher than Winston Churchill. You can find MP3s of some of Churchill’s most famous speeches on the web.

Churchill is a master of rhythm and repetition: “We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender…” His sentences are vivid, declarative, full of strong words. You don’t read Churchill and wonder what he really thinks.

George Orwell, Churchill’s political opposite, in an essay entitled Politics and The English Language, sets out 12 simple rules that will serve every blogger well.

First, ask yourself:

• What am I trying to say?
• What words will express it?
• What image or idiom will make it clearer?
• Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?
• Could I put it more shortly?
• Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly

If instinct fails to answer those questions, do this:

• Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
• Never use a long word where a short one will do.
• If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
• Never use the passive where you can use the active.
• Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
• Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

Why am I using examples from politics rather than marketing? Because it is unexpected. Because so much internet marketing is stale, predictible, formulaic tripe.

Make your blog fresh. Give it a voice.

If you want someone to pattern yourself after, start with the best. Would you really mind being known as the person who wrote, “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat” ? Haven’t you seen enough yellow highlights, spurious testimonials, and doctored pictures of Clickbank pay-outs to last forever?

Very few have the artistry of great writers, but we can all follow Orwell’s simple commands:

1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.

If you do just those three things, your blog will immediately be better.

Photo by southtyrolean Released under Creative Commons License

Choose the correct word - your readers will thank you.

Confusing Words “is a collection of 3210 words that are troublesome to readers and writers. Words are grouped according to the way they are most often confused or misused.”