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| Public domain photo of Winston Churchill in 1936 |
Necessity is not just the mother of invention but of improvement when brevity in writing is demanded by a state of war.
It began with the reason it was particularly necessary for their writing:
To do our work, we all have to read a mass of papers. Nearly all of them are far too long. This wastes time, while energy has to be spent in looking for the essential points.Anticipating the style of writing that we have come to expect in short form content online, Churchill offered four specific directions for removing anything extraneous:
1. Using "a series of short, crisp paragraphs"
2. Removing the statistical analysis or more involved discussion from the main part of the report and offering it in an appendix.
3. Using of "headlines only, which can be expanded orally if needed."
4. Eliminating all "woolly phrases" that add needless words like: "It is also of importance to bear in mind the following considerations..."
Churchill acknowledge that while the style "may at first seem rough as compared with the flat surface of officalese jargon." However, the higher priority then was "saving time," and, he added that, in fact, such focus offers additional benefits: "the discipline of setting out the real points concisely will prove an aid to clear thinking."
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