The Washington herald., 1917-01-11
Brevity and Efficiency
By oRIsON SWEET MARDEl

about President Wilson's public
speeches is their. brevity. Clear, force
full, direct, always going straight to
the point, they never Contain an un-
necessary word.
Brief, clean-cut language indicates
a clear brain, brain that has been
trained to think. Slipshod, loose
jointed, slovenly language indicates
lack of logical thinking.
When a person is long on words
and short on ideas, we know that he
either lacks brain power or he has
become victim of prolixity; he has
formed the foolish habit of chatter
ing without thinking.
Very few people ever learn to con-
centrate their minds, to think clear
ly, and express their thoughts in
brief, forceful language. They ram
bic along aimlessly in their talk, US
ing, perhaps, ten times the words that
are necessary to express their ideas.
How often we see some one rise
in meeting or public gathering and
inform the audience that he "has just
word to say" and then spend half
an hour saying it!
Brevity of speech is a characteristic
of strong men-mcn of action.
At Gen. Grants war councils, his
generals would spend great deal of
time discussing situations, the proba-
bilities of the success or failure of the
proposed move upon the. enemy
Grant would listen, walking back and
forth in his tent with his arms behind
him, smoking cigar, but seldom
opening his mouth or making a sug-
gestion. He would simply smoke
and think, and sometimes while the
other generals were talking he would
draw paper from his pocket and
give it to them with the instructions:
Gentlemen, tomorrow morning you
will proceed at daylight to carry out
these orders"
In selecting boy from a score OF
applicants, a shrewd employer will
take the one who gets to his subject
directly, states it concisely, with the
fewest words, outlines his position
briefly and stands or falls by it, and
does not bore him by telling of the
great things he has accomplished or
what he can do.
1t is a good drill In business CORE
spondence, to imagine that you are
writing a cablegram where every
word costs twenty-five cents, and try
to express the greatest amount OF
thought in the fewest words. After
you have written letter or an essay
as concisely as you think possible, go
over it again and erase every super
fuous word, recasting the sentences.
By studying brevity of expression,
one will soon overcome the slipshod
habit of spreading over a page many
sentences containing only a strag-
Cling, illogical thought. Such prac-
tice will also greatly improve the
quality of your thinking.
The everything authors have ex-
pressed their thoughts in transparent
language. They have stripped the ex-
preston of their ideas of verbiage, of
all superfuity. They have chosen
words which exactly fit the thought.
They have left no traces of anything
perishable which time can corrode
or affect, and so they are immortal.
What power will time ever have to
erase single sentence from Lincoln S
immortal speech at Gettysburg,
Longfellow's Psalm of Life" Grays
"Elegy," or Shakespeare's divine Gre
ations? How many centuries and
ages, think you, would obliterate
Christ's story of the lilies of the field,
or the Sermon on the Mount?
The greatest writers have spent
hours hunting for a word which
would give the exact delicacy of ex-
preston desired, or an entire day re-
writing, re-arranging and polishing a
single line in poem. In letter
which one of these immortals wrote
to a friend, he said, in speaking OF
his work: II am still at it at the rate
of line day." Nulla dies sine linea.
There are thousands of books, dust
covered and unread on the shelves,
which would have been good sellers
if one-half or three-fourths of the
words were cut out, which could be
done in many cases without the loss
of thought.