In defence of laconism
The concept of “less is more” has been around for over 50 years now (and laconism itself for over 2 000 years since it was invented by the Spartans), and yet still too often companies decide to issue overly verbose communication.
In our practice, we sometimes have to invest a lot of energy into persuading our clients to make the descriptions of themselves and their services as concentrated as possible. Here are a few reasons why we are committed laconists (and think you should become one too):
- Accept it — nobody wants to read long stretches of text anymore
Like it or not, humans nowadays have an attention span shorter than that of a goldfish — eight seconds, on average. If you choose to start your text with a poetic prelude (e.g. “the rain continued for three days in a row” — a real example from the promo material of an IT company), you will probably lose the reader before they get to the actually important points that were the reason for the communication in the first place. Often, simple rephrasing of a sentence, putting the most important information at the beginning and cutting out unnecessary ornamentation can help to avoid this scenario.
2) Condensed messages are more powerful
Have you ever wondered what unites the most influential and memorable statements by the most powerful people in history? They all are short. By contrast, overly long and detailed explanations often leave a feeling that the speaker (whether it be a person or a company) is not really confident about themselves. Companies, especially when not limited by space constraints, tend to be over-explanatory out of fear. What if our clients don’t get ALL the information about us right here? Will they still buy from us/partner with us? The answer is: yes, they will, if you convey to them the most important benefits and values that define your product or service and make it stand out from the crowd. Usually there are just a few key points of that character. And moreover, your readers will be grateful to you for respecting their time.
3) Laconic doesn’t mean dry
Another common misconception about laconism is that it leads to texts that are dull, colourless, and devoid of all depth, feeling and wit. In fact, the opposite is true. Laconism means leaving out everything inessential and unnecessary — and emotions and humour are often very useful in conveying laconic messages. If you have only six words instead of thirty, you’d better choose ones that strike a chord in the most precise and powerful way. Words that invoke strong emotional associations, make up a semiotic riddle or create unusual combinations are the best building materials for succinct, yet rich texts.
4) Using fewer words demands real mastery
“If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter,” said the physicist Blaise Pascal (or Mark Twain, or George Bernard Shaw, or Voltaire or somebody else). We have all struggled to trim the fat from our writing, whether school essays or presentations of business projects. Unfortunately, teaching the skill of concentrated writing receives sustained attention only in a few spheres of education, such as academic writing and journalism. We, the COPYWRITERs, are lucky enough to have a background in these fields, but even for us, mastering writing in a laconic style needs continuous self-training.
What should you do, if you want to learn that cool, concentrated style? Studying famous speeches, as well as high-quality journalism and business texts is a good way to start.
