Cutting your copy? Slash the quotes
Everybody’s trying to write tighter these days. Start with paring wordy, repetitive quotes—even if it’s the CEO who is speaking.
Former journalists abound among communicators, and even those who haven’t toiled under a grumpy Lou Grant-type editor tend to mimic the techniques of reporters.
This can cause contradictory crosscurrents in our writing. We strive to write tersely, but we sometimes litter our prose with quotes.
If you’re looking for ways to prune that 950-word employee profile—other than hacking off the bottom half—start by paraphrasing the bulkier or more jargon-y quotes.
A professional writer can state most matters more succinctly than people speaking off the cuff. This especially holds true if your source is addicted to corporate gobbledygook. Paraphrasing frees you up to underscore key points with snappy sound bites.
(Is it time for an obligatory quote? I say yes!)
Consider the following quote, taken from the raw transcript of an interview I conducted on crisis response many years ago:
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