If good writing is remembered, perhaps we should look at some of the world’s most memorable phrases to see what they have in common.
Here are three examples that demonstrate the skill required to write words that are remembered, not just until lunchtime, but rather, forever.
Martin Luther King when he said “I have a dream”
Dorothy Mackellar when she painted Australia writing, “I love a sunburnt country, a land of sweeping plains”
William Shakespeare’s summing up of love when he penned, ‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day’.
Why are these phrases remembered?
Each of these phrases use plain English by selecting words that are short, at one or two syllables, and clear in their meaning.
We don’t need to hear or read them a second time to understand. We absorb their message straight away. They make it look so easy.
These phrases each represent a complex thought that is delivered in simple language. And despite their few syllables and few words, they are capable of sparking in their audience an inner conversation around topics like how we respond to adversity, or express love, or enable equal opportunity for all. Or how we describe our home countries and our dreams and ambitions.
They are the start of a conversation, a meditation perhaps, about how we respond to life. They live beyond the text that holds them and they infiltrate our thoughts with their precise language. We have no doubt what they mean. They reside beyond the page as they invite us to ponder this life and our place in it.
If you want to say or write something memorable, they are good role models to study. Choose simple words, one or two syllables each, and be so precise with language that your meaning is clear.
