Day 134: Remove introductions to the content.

Many writers introduce their topics, letters, documents, and memos with phrases that prevent clear and direct communication and that don’t provide any useful information. Here are a few examples.

“I would like to tell you about . . .”

“You might have heard that . . .”

“The purpose of this document is . . .”

“I am going to . . .”

“This is about . . .”

The first step to beginning your document is to establish the context for the topics and ideas that you will address. If you do this well, you won’t need any of these introductory phrases. For example, instead of writing

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“I would like to tell you about a new opportunity for selling eggs”

you can simply write

“You have a new opportunity to sell eggs.”

Instead of telling the reader what you are going to write about, just write about it. Instead of writing,

“Let me tell you about the sacred burial grounds in the Grand Canyon. They are . . .”

you can simply write

“The sacred burial grounds in the Grand Canyon are . . . .”

This way, you get the reader focused on the content and not on you.