Tactical Writing Guide: Tactics for Tight Writing

HOW TIGHT IS YOUR WRITING?

Tight writing delivers lean, high-energy content to your readers. It empowers them with information that’s easy to find, understand-and use. That turns them into clients, subscribers, or better-informed citizens. The Tactical Writing Guide shows you how to write tight text every time.

The guide presents dozens of tactics for creating concise, compelling content. It shows you how to:

• Make your words punch

• Hack the fat out of your text

• Organize your content for maximum impact

• Gather intel on your audience

This is just some of what you’ll learn:

CHOOSE POWERFUL WORDS.

Paint pictures in your readers’ minds using specific, vivid nouns. Don’t say dog if you mean chihuahua. Unleash that yapping pet in your readers’ imaginations.

Entertain readers with action-packed verbs. Don’t say The assailant struck the victim if you mean The attacker punched the victim in the mouth. Now we have a robust verb ( punched ) and precise nouns ( attacker and mouth ). They plant a high-intensity vision in the readers’ minds.

Find alternatives to boring, overused verbs like to be,
to do,
to have, and to go.

CUT WORD CLUTTER.

Word clutter suffocates your message and your readers’ interest. This fatty text includes unneeded words and long-winded phrases. It wastes readers’ time and makes them work harder to understand your message.

Eliminate:

• Excessive prepositional phrases

• Long phrases that replace single words

• Unneeded topics

Shorten everything: words, phrases, sentences, and paragraphs.

Use personal pronouns whenever possible because they:

• Add a conversational tone

• Help keep the writing in the active voice

• Shorten the writing

Shorten your text with contractions to keep the tone conversational.

MAKE YOUR INFORMATION EASY TO FIND.

Present key information first.

Structure your content with headings, subheadings, and labels.

Explode dense paragraphs using:

• Bullets

• Numbered lists

• Chronological lists

• Tables

GATHER AUDIENCE INTEL.

Identify your audience. The general public is too vague to be useful. Be specific, like this:

• Travel enthusiasts

• Environmental activists

• Parents of disabled children

• Business owners

• Mobile device consumers

• Cancer patients

Next, explore their needs. What information do they seek from you? What do they already know? What do you want them to know? When you write, you must take the lead and ensure the audience receives the most important information.

WE’RE JUST GETTING STARTED.

This book offers more than 50 powerful tactics to help you tighten your writing. Grab a copy and master them all. Your readers will thank you.