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Principle 3: Concise

For sale: baby shoes. Never worn. - Ernest Hemingway.**

The less you say, the more people are likely to remember. Being concise means leaving out words that carry little or no weight. It also means only including information that really matters.

Writing can often be made more concise simply by removing unnecessary adjectives and adverbs, and using the active voice ('Germany adopted the euro' instead of 'The euro was adopted by Germany').

Next principle: personal


** Hemingway reportedly said this six-word story was his greatest work.