Welcome fellow podcasters, this is Andrea,
and today I will talk about “the economy of words”.
Ernest Hemingway and Oskar Wilde were
known for their sparse use of words in their literature. Hemingway once said,
"I am trying to make, before I get
through, a picture of the world--or as much of it as I have seen. Boiling it
down always, rather than spreading it out thin."
As podcasters we look to draw and
entertain our audience, not turn them away from our program with long and
boring talk. Keeping sentences short and vocabulary simple is key here. If we
were to report a killing in our hometown, we could say:
“Today a man was shot on the corner of 3rd
and Washington. The suspect was apprehended and remains in custody until
investigators release his identity.”
If the author of this piece decided to use
flowery language, it could read something like this:
“Today a rich, white man was shot by a drunk,
black homeless guy on Washington Street after he downed a six pack to bring up
the nerve to kill the guy and steal his possessions. The police refuses to give
any information; we do not know if the killer will be released back onto our
streets.”
I
don’t know about you, but I stopped listening at “downed a six pack”. Keep it
simple folks and that’s all.
Andrea
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