It's Complex to write Simple These Days - But Hemingway's Rules of Writing Still Work

Why Can’t New Marketing and PR People Write?

I’ve had Marketing and PR employees work for me right out of college, and found most were woefully unprepared for the real-world new environment. Not because of any inherent deficiency in the school they came from, but more from the frenetic pace of change in the PR industry. Blogs, Vlogs, Podcasts, Social Media, SEO, SEO PR, Tags, and on and on and on. The technology changes alone can be daunting or intimidating.

But the writing … the writing, that’s now part skill, part science and part art. It is the absolute foundation of being able to effectively use all the new technologies and communication tools.

Complex and Under-appreciated

It’s a skill and art that is complex, under-appreciated and, as far as I can tell, under-emphasized by schools. Or—if you have the teeth-pulling, Novocain-less pleasure of reading many press releases—companies, for that matter. Why is that? One of the main reasons is …

It’s Complex to Write Simple These Days

Ernest Hemingway had a clear understanding and vision of writing simply and effectively when he discussed the four rules of writing he learned as a journalist at the Kansas City Star.

Hemingway Four Rules (well, not really, they were the Kansas City Star’s actually) READ MORE