Mastering the Art of Expression

The pace of digital life has many of us engaged in the discourse of brevity. Ever since the first Blackberry came out, and we started tapping out emails in almost Pavlovian reaction to the constantly vibrating brick, the art of the fully formed thought or thesis has gradually diminished into an exercise in character exclusion.

We’ve all experienced the frustration of insufficient response: a key partner, boss or client weighs in on that important issue, but doesn’t fully engage and the audience is left dangling, hoping for some additional explanation or clarification. The exercise in brevity becomes inefficient, annoying. “Sent from my ____. Sorry for typos and brevity,” has become an acceptable excuse for inadequate communication, but while this may prevent assumptions that we’re high school drop outs, or that those unfortunate iPhone autocorrects aren’t actually HR violations, it does nothing to promote the higher virtue of precise and clear communication.

We believe great writing is the genesis of persuasive speech. An Ethos3 presentation begins with a multi-disciplinary team digging into the content side of the deck, deconstructing the objectives and points and reassembling them in story format. We rely heavily on the established principles of essays and written discourse because there is almost no dilution when words transfer from the page to the stage. This isn’t a plug for our services; rather, it’s an acknowledgement that after thousands of presentations and many years, experience has shown that great presentations start with thorough, persuasive writing. Design and delivery fall into place easily when the story is strong.

All of this may be a bit paradoxical. One of the reasons writing is so vital in the grand scheme of things is that few of us have the patience to wallow through poorly crafted, long form expression. Isn’t that why we send those cryptically abbreviated emails? Most of us would rather be heard, even if we aren’t saying much, than have our thoughts discarded one sentence in.

But that’s precisely why writing matters to your presentation. Passion, logic and organization can all come together to hold your audience’s attention, but it takes practice. We have to exercise our skill at grabbing and keeping people’s attention, whether with emails, blog posts, or presentations. If you can’t put together a first paragraph that justifies the second, how do you expect people to feel when they’re forced to listen to you speak for thirty minutes?

Of course, despite our 140-character culture, opportunities to hone our writing skills abound in the digital age. The most obvious outlet is a personal (but professionally oriented) blog. Staking out your professional values and arguing for them in long-ish form is great experience, and a great way to get feedback and insights on engagement from people who are probably like your on-the-job audience, but not actually signing your paychecks. Additionally, many trade publications, local business magazines, and other content publishers are constantly on the lookout for expert voices to contribute on a regular basis. You’d be surprised what happens when you ask.

Lastly, in many organizations no one has time to putting pen to paper to articulate internal strategies, business plans, quarterly or annual objectives, etc. Yet these documents, when they do exist, provide great benefit to all constituents—not just as a source of guidance, but as fodder for internal discussion and alignment. Take the bull by the horns and ask for an opportunity to draft and circulate strategic documents for your department or business; people will most likely be happy to have the input (even if your first few cracks are more punching bag than Gettysburg Address).

Question: What opportunities do you seek out to practice the art of expression today?





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