It’s easy for business people to be dragged into managerial speak. The jargon of an industry sucks us in to talking in the lingo of our “ist”. But all too often it’s a language that becomes, as Carolyne Lee, describes it, “turgid”. Words and phrases are emptied of meaning. Passion vanishes, swallowed by the carefully measured, lawyer-friendly, litigation-safe press release.
In Wordlings in a Web 2.0 World, Lee proposes that “word bytes” are memorable. They’re loaded with meaning and full of colour and life. They build images of subjects and events, ones that come to life and create emotion.
When I read Lee’s high praise for short, cleverly-crafted, meaning dense poetry I can’t help but reflect on the critisism heaped on Twitter by the uninformed and the intellectual alike. Twitter forces the writer to create meaning despite brevity. It is this Zen-like brevity which demands creativity, enforces discipline and has the potential to produce lasting word bytes.
Lee’s article is one that encourages me to write from the heart and to write with passion and soul. It urges me to write with brevity and purpose and to expose my humanity and imperfections.
