Straight to the point

In all my english classes, the teachers encouraged us to be more concise and commented whether our phrases are too wordy. That's a tough goal, especially if we have a lot of things on our mind and we can go on and on about the topic. But if you think about it, if a message isn't short, the person will often not read it, or just skim through it.

In general, if you keep going on and on about one topic, eventually you'll lose the audience's interest, no? Being concise clearly comes across to the audience because it is straight to the point.

So why not deliver your message in as few words as possible? And grasp the attention of all types of people with different levels and different views.

Sell your words!

Words are one of the most powerful medium- it can encourage or discourage the self-esteem of others. A single phrase can mean different things by adding elements to it such as raising or lowering the tone of your voice or emphasizing different words in your sentence.

In business, this aspect is important especially if you are able to present this in a concise manner. Not only is it brief but the message is strongly presented.

According to Maria Collins' piece, 'Tips for being more concise in business communications' businesses use clear plain and simple language in all their business communications to avoid misunderstandings and upsetting, annoying and losing customers.

In business sales, the seller knows much more about their product or service than the buyer. They should also know that they shouldn't dazzle the customers with a thousand reasons why they should do business with them. They also pick three very good reasons and explain them quickly. They don't need a lot of fancy dressing to tell the story.
A salesperson just needs to be as convincing as possible at a short amount of time. They must know what to say and what the customer wants to hear.

After all, the customer isn't at the store to listen to an entire speech.

Scissors vs. Pencil

It is said that we learn to give speeches from the time we learned to speak. We weren't given a proper speech format but we still managed, didn't we? However, presenting in front of the class, office, and work is a different story.

As an experienced public speaker, I learned that it's not what I say that's important, it's what my audience remembers from my speech. Above that, it's not just what they remember, but what they take of it and put into action. If they remember what we say, they will think differently.

Based on the article "Be Concise!" by Stephen Boyd, one of the greatest speeches was John F. Kennedy's 1960 inaugural address when he committed the nation to go to the moon. The length of his speech was 14 minutes. Stephen directs us to many famous speeches that were known to be concise as well as provide us with a few tips on how to make this possible.

It is a common thought that having a lot to say is better than not saying much in speech. But in reality, having something important to say is better than just saying something. For a speech to have more effect, we should say what we need to say in a concise way, like the American author and comedian says, "I believe more in the scissors than I do in the pencil." In other words, what we cut out of our writing can be more important than what we add to it.

Pardon me?

Have you ever experienced the feeling of being an outcast? The feeling that you don't belong?
Well I did, and it all began in the year 2000. My first year... in Canada. As an 8 year old filipina, I was not familiar with the language 'English'. People approached me speaking a language that appeared 'gibberish' to me and every time they talked to me, my only response would be "Pardon me?" It was not easy coming from another country and not being able to understand the people around me made it worse. And to be honest, I was given a translator to help me understand my teachers, school mates, etc.

My friend, the translator, became one of those people who helped me understand and speak the language. It was through short and concise sentences that improved my understanding of the 'English' language. I learned that being too wordy and lengthy not only made it difficult for me to grasp the person's message but I also misunderstood what they were trying to say. If sentences are too long there's a danger of losing the intended meaning and losing your audience.

Once upon a time

"... and so they were happy, and they lived happily ever after. The end."

Wait a minute.
I could have sworn I heard a repetition.
Couldn't they simply say "and they lived happily ever after"? I know it was just an extra 5 words but come on, time and space is limited.

I have two words for you- Be concise. In other words, it is always better to say whatever you want to say without using any more words than necessary. Reading takes up valuable time, and readers don't want to waste time reading things they already know or reading material that doesn't tell them anything.