After I make a slide deck for a brand new presentation, invent a brand new area title, take into consideration a reputation for a brand new Java class, itemize bullet factors in an educational paper, even write an e-mail—I attempt to comply with a easy precept which helps me make my content material extra stable. Effectively, not less than I imagine it does. Possibly it is going to assist you as properly. The precept is easy: in any respect prices, attempt to squeeze the content material into one phrase, one sentence, one paragraph, or one web page.
![True Story (2021) by Eric Newman](https://www.yegor256.com/images/2022/06/true-story.jpg)
A extra formal definition of the precept could be this: it’s both one phrase/sentence/paragraph/web page or far more. Let’s see an instance. Say I have to record my plans for tomorrow:
- write a brand new article
- ship an e-mail to my boss
- prepare dinner a dinner
- take a nap
Do any of them have to be longer than one phrase? Probably not. “Take a nap” is simply three phrases, as is “prepare dinner a dinner”. On the one hand, three won’t be thought of “far more” than one. On the opposite, they could possibly be shortened with none lack of that means. Thus, I’ve to determine whether or not to make all of them a lot longer than one phrase or shorten all of them to a single one. The second alternative is all the time preferable:
- article
- e-mail
- dinner
- nap
I wrote about compound variable names in an earlier put up: the identical precept is relevant to them. Variables should both be nouns with out every other phrases round them, or use many extra phrases, which is an distinctive scenario.
In one other blog post about resumes I discussed {that a} good CV should take precisely one web page. If it’s extra, it must be many extra. However undoubtedly not two or three pages.
I counsel making use of this precept to each piece of content material you write: attempt to squeeze it into one.