How do you make your speach/writing succinct

H0tTamal3 · 2019-08-21T14:33:53+00:00

For a lot of men, the problem you describe comes from being afraid of not communicating well enough. What you miss is that people will ask for clarification if they need it, so it's okay if you don't communicate as completely as you think you need to.

There are times when you will need to be as succinct as possible, and there are times when you can be more wordy. Reading that context is helpful as well.

While I think that your post was completely fine, I'll use it as an example to show you something. Don't take this as being nit-picky; I'm just doing it as an instructive example:

There is alot of advice in the manosphere telling us not to be so wordy and to be more succinct. You can see it when the EC's post and they convey so much info in a brief comment.

I am not someone who talks alot, but when I do talk I tend to be very wordy, repeat myself, overexplain things and other low status cues. When I write it is the same way.

Is there any action I can take to become better at being succinct? Any way that I can practice conveying information without using so many words, or is this just one of those things that you learn by being aware of it?

a lot*

Imagine replacing all of the above with: "What can I do to learn to be more succinct in my speech and writing?"

I joined toastmasters 4 months ago and it has helped me with the way I speak, but not the content of my speach.

I would argue that this sentence is completely necessary and should not be made any more succinct. It shows that you have been actively trying to work on the problem and describes how it was not helpful in this particular area.

H0tTamal3 · 2019-08-21T14:53:51+00:00

Succinct communication follows a structure of subject->verb->object. It also excludes unneccessary adverbs/adjectives. If you pay attention to people who are annoyingly wordy, you'll start to pick up on sentence structures that put the object first with the use of fluff words. The best example I can think of off the top of my head would be job performance reviews. Often, managers don't keep good records of employee performance or attempt to embelish a favored employee by using more descriptive language. Here's an example:

"Tom's performance was leaps and bounds ahead of his peers over the last six months. His motivation and engagement on the sales floor was directly responsible for the store's stellar appearance and significantly contributed to the last quarter's earnings."

versus

"I rate Tom the #1 employee out of 5 for the period of Q2 2019. Tom has been on task at all times when observed and his customer engagements lead to $500,000 in sales volume."

Notice how one example includes facts and is quantifiable while the other is full of subjective bullshit fluff. Good communication gets to the point with as little preface as possible and with minimal personal bias from the orator through the use of unneccesary descriptors.

UnbreakableFrame · 2019-08-21T15:00:43+00:00

Just read Hemingway. His style is minimalistic perfection.

Project_Zero_Betas · 2019-08-22T01:21:46+00:00

You need to read and write more. It forces you to be choosy with your words.

gleeeshy · 2019-08-21T14:16:53+00:00

Never had a problem being too wordy, the problem is just with useless words like "what's up?" Every hour.

If you have a whole paragraph of useful information in the context of a conversation it's fine to say it.

Title	How do you make your speach/writing succinct
Author	H0tTamal3
Upvotes	3
Comments	16
Date	August 21, 2019 2:07 PM UTC (6 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/askTRP
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/asktrp/comments/cthd7t/how_do_you_make_your_speachwriting_succinct/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/askTRP/how-do-you-make-your-speachwriting-succinct.250022 https://theredarchive.com/post/250022

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