From the course: Writing with Impact

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Getting to the point

Getting to the point

From the course: Writing with Impact

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Getting to the point

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- As writers, sometimes we know exactly what we want to say. Other times we muddle around with words and never feel we got it quite right. One way to work through this is to look at your message on three levels. First, what it is. That's the surface level. Then what it does. And finally the deepest level of all, what it means. Here's an example. In the early 80s, computers were marketed with messages like this machine has 16K of RAM. That's what it is. Eventually the message became, you can track your finances on this thing. That's what it does. And then came messages of freedom and power because control of your finances are in your hands. That's what it means. Messages at that level have greater impact because they appeal to our aspirations rather than our thoughts. But be careful though, because these three steps are in a hierarchy. If marketing had said, computers mean freedom, before people understood what they were and what they did, the message wouldn't have had much of an…

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