Smart Brevity (Revised and Updated): The Power of Saying More with Less

Written by Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen and Roy Schwartz

Narrated by Mike Chamberlain

Brevity is confidence. Length is fear.

This is the guiding principle of Smart Brevity, a communication formula built by Axios journalists to prioritize essential news and information, explain its impact and deliver it in a concise and visual format. In this revised and updated edition, the co-founders of Axios have created an essential guide for communicating effectively and efficiently using Smart Brevity—think Strunk and White’s Elements of Style for the digital age.
 
In Smart Brevity​: The Power of Saying More with Less, Axios co-founders Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen, and Roy Schwartz teach readers how to say more with less in virtually any format. They also share communications lessons learned from their decades of experience in media, business and communications.
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hachette Audio
• Release date: Sep 20, 2022
• ISBN: 9781649041142

Reviews for Smart Brevity (Revised and Updated)

[booklover1801 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In "Smart Brevity," Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen, and Roy Schwartz teach the value of slicing through "the fog of words" that passes for communication in some quarters. Whether you are writing an essay, emailing colleagues, or addressing an audience, you should try to communicate clearly, crisply, and succinctly. Recently, I completed a crossword puzzle with "TLDR" as one of the answers. This is textspeak for "too long, didn't read." Some news articles, social media posts, and work-related memos are so lengthy and tedious that we may glance at them or skip them altogether.

This book teaches us how to get our points across in a way that will break through the "noise and nonsense." "Smart Brevity" encourages the use of "strong words, shorter sentences, arresting teases, simple visuals, and smartly organized ideas," so that people will listen to and remember what we are saying. The authors make good use of bullet points, eye-catching fonts, anecdotes, illustrations, "tricks & tips," and catchy headings, such as "Why It Matters," "Go Deeper," and "The Big Picture."

Many businesses and corporations have adopted the "Smart Brevity" method of communication. The rest of us can also aspire to inject life into our oral and written presentations by making them more forceful and well-defined. I had an English professor in college who constantly badgered us to "cut and connect." He meant that we should eliminate unnecessary verbiage and develop our ideas logically and coherently. He would likely have endorsed the "Smart Brevity" approach.