Success tip: Learn to refine your message

As a tax adviser, I have been writing letters and reports from my late twenties. Although tax advisers must be conscious of the length of the document being created, there is almost never a hard limit.

In 1997 I began writing articles for publication for “The Treasurer” which is the house magazine of the Association of Corporate Treasurers. At first it was initially extremely hard complying with their word limits, which were strict because the article has to fit within the space on the magazine page. Obviously, over time, practice made this easier.

Writing a concise piece that conveys your messages is much harder than writing a long piece.

I first came across this concept as a teenager, I think when reading a Sherlock Holmes story, although I cannot give a citation. Searching the internet finds many attributions for the quote, but the earliest appears to be the French philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal in 1657 in his “Lettres Provinciales” as detailed on Quora:

Writing concisely is not just a question of how you select your words and sentences.

If the constraints are severe, you need to be ruthless at deciding what are your key messages. However, if you can get that right, it will make your communications much more effective.

As a teenager, I watched a TV history programme which simply consisted of an academic talking, in this case about the battle of Gettysburg. At the dedication ceremony for the Gettysburg cemetery, the featured orator was Edward Everett. He spoke for two hours, with a 13,607-word speech. The TV historian pointed out that apart from historians, nobody remembers his name, or a word that he said.

Then Abraham Lincoln spoke for two minutes, giving the Gettysburg Address, the most famous speech in American history. Those 278 words were not spoken impromptu. Lincoln had worked hard on that two-minute speech over several days. See the Gettysburg Address Wikipedia article .

A recent personal example

The FFEU (Foundation for Ethnic Understanding) based in New York City recently ran a series of daily Ramadan videos where prominent Muslims around the world sent a short Ramadan message.

I was delighted to be asked to contribute one but dismayed by the brief that I was given. The invitation letter is reproduced below:

How does one compose a message that helps to “educate the non-Muslim community about Ramadan” and “strengthen relations between Muslims and non- Muslims around the world” while fitting that message within 60-seconds? How much can you actually say in 60 seconds?

Speaking quickly to squeeze in more words would obviously be nonsensical. Accordingly, I needed to be completely ruthless at focusing on exactly what I wanted to say.

The final recording that I submitted can be watched below, followed by the written text. I was still five seconds over the limit but decided that both I and FFEU could live with that!

The full series of 30 Ramadan talks can be watched on the FFEU Facebook "Watch" page. Scroll down to "All videos" and look for videos whose title begins with "30 Days" in the time period of Ramadan 2020 (24 April to 23 May.)

I assume that every speaker was given the same brief of providing a talk lasting 60 seconds. You will see how most speakers appear to have ignored that constraint.

The final video

My 65-second video.

In passing, the image quality of the video shows what can be achieved with a smartphone today, in this case an iPhone-X.

The 142-word script

Reading my script below, you should be able to identify the key messages I wanted to convey, about Ramadan and the origin of the Quran, the importance of education, and the support and solidarity that Muslims in Britain receive from non-Muslims.