“Smart Brevity” teaches you how to communicate effectively through emails, slide decks, and social media. Seeing concrete examples of each type of communication was helpful. A lot of the principles are similar to the inverted pyramid style of writing taught in journalism school: start with the most important information and write in the active voice. Sometimes the advice they give would not land for certain writers - for example, women can be called rude or cold for using a more direct communication style. The cheat sheet is a good resource to sum up the general idea of the book and distills the most useful advice, and I could see myself using that as a resource in the future.

Thanks to NetGalley for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Workman Publishing Company for allowing me to view this ebook in exchange for an honest, unbiased opinion.

I DNF'd this book at the 45% mark. For a book that focuses on "Smart Brevity," it really missed the mark on the brevity part. Everything that is covered in this book could be done in 50 pages.

Now, what did I like about this book? I loved the word count and average time it would take to read through at the beginning of every chapter. It promised to get the point across and, if you were working through this book a section at a time like I was, it was the perfect way to consume it in chunks. This chapter will take about 4 minutes? Yeah, I've got the time to read this chapter.

Coming from someone who spent years as a reporter, it was a nice refresher course and I found some value in it for my communications role today. Little nuggets like "start any communication by thinking first of your very specific audience and what they need or want" or "have the courage to take your hands off the keyboard" are great reminders.

It was everything else that I found to be aggravating. The authors' voice come across kind of condescending and bullet-pointing everything made the book feel more like a listicle. The graphics were also extremely cheesy. I finally threw in the towel when they advised to bold important points. I'd like to point out that this "trick" is only beneficial to people who aren't visually impaired - screen readers will not be able to pick up on bolded words.

I did not want to read an additional 100+ pages on information that could be summed up in half the time.

I wish i had access to this book many years ago. I would be a better writer and overall communicator for it.

Reviewing SMART BREVITY by Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen and Roy Schwartz is intimidating. Two dozen chapters illustrate "The Power of Saying More with Less." VandeHei, Allen, and Schwartz, co-creators of Axios and Politico, encourage readers to improve communication by "adapt[ing] to how people consume content – not how you wish they did or did once upon a time." Ultimately, they offer ideas to increase value and efficiency by being more direct and helpful while wasting less time. Our writing teachers would agree with advice to "know your audience," but would likely discourage frequent use of bullet points or to "do all of this on one screen of a phone, regardless of what it is." Not happening. Our students are learning to write, need practice and often struggle with expressing key ideas. However, they could relate to the case stories, amusing anecdotes, and memorable quotes ("have the courage to take your hands off the keyboard" or "blobs of text make the eye sad") in this guidebook. The Wall Street Journal’s Barton Swaim called SMART BREVITY "a slick, engaging and in some ways laudable effort;" he, too, raised a couple of points for follow-up: contrasting print versus screen reading and whether this writing style sacrifices nuance by identifying "the bottom line" versus encouraging readers to draw their own conclusions. Much to explore and contemplate here.

Omg! 🚨 Smart Brevity is here!

Hurry 🏃‍♀️. Don't delay. Add to 🛒.

It will change you. Challenge you.

Make you a kickass communicator.

And you will get a raise.

Especially if you write: emails, PPTs, blogs, newsletters, articles and more!

Buy this book. Seriously.

It's smart and beautiful. The design, that is.

5 🌟

Lastly...
Bless the fine folks at Workman Publishing for sharing this book with us on NetGalley so we can be the first to order our paper copies from our favorite independent bookstore!

"Smart brevity" is the authors' trademarked method for paring written communication down to essentials, devised for journalism but easily applicable to business and possibly even more useful in an environment of meetings that could have been an email, and emails that make you want to respond tl;dr. As someone who tends to be wordy in the hope of being absolutely clear, I found that the focus on also being concise was the best thing about this book. The book was maybe a little longer than it needed to be, and was occasionally repetitive, but will be helpful to anyone hoping to improve their ability to get a point across efficiently.

Many of us learned to write using an essay style: summary/setup, point-by-point expansion, then a summary/conclusion. The problem? We no longer read essays; we read emails, blog posts, and other much shorter written forms and need a new concept for creating and delivering that content. Axios, the company started by the authors, delivers newsletters that follow this style guide to craft readable, informative, quick content bites. The tips here are geared towards business writers and are somewhat obvious (target your content at your audience's needs and expectations, be brief, etc.) but are a very useful reminder for us all.

This is one of the most useful books I've read in a long time.

I have already started to use the principles in my writing.

This book is written by founders of Axios and Politico so they put their money where their mouth is in terms of communicating key ideas succinctly. Why this book matters is because it provides tips to help cut through the noise and clutter of information overload in the digital age. Of course as I am writing this review, I am self-consciously asking if I am applying their techniques! I definitely left with key ideas I can immediately apply at work - in emails, presentations and meetings. the book was visually appealing and made the content easy to digest and accessible. My only critique is -- dare I say it--- I think this book was repetitive in places and would benefit from "smart brevity" tools. I appreciated the cheat sheets/exercises at the end of the book. I recommend this book.

Write shorter, make your point clear, and ditch words that aren't serving a point, says the crew behind Axios. I found Smart Brevity a valuable, if frustrating book, that -- somewhat amusingly, given the title -- is about 50% longer than it needs to be.

Perhaps paradoxically, I think both that A) most people could improve their communications tremendously if they followed the recommendations of this book, thought about audience, and cut out the fluff to write clearly and B) "Smart Brevity" (gag, of course this style needs a Capital-Lettered Brand Name(TM) ) contributes mightily to the immiseration of language, the death of nuance, and seemingly national allergy to complexity.

Smart Brevity is great at encouraging us to get to the point and recognizing the unceasing competition for attention and focus, but half of the examples the authors give of how to deploy it simply drop nuance, context, and depth in favor of speed. Workman-like writing more than has its place, but this book fails to grapple with what this tradeoff costs. The authors assert facts and figures with little support. I'm sure it's true, but I just have to trust the authors rather than have the opportunity to verify for myself.

Worth your time, especially since I polished this off in about 90 minutes, but give some thought to what you're losing, too, when Smart Brevity comes to dominate communication. Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC.

Would you like to **know the secrets** of sharing your message **to attract readers**, enticing them to actually **crave more details**, and clearly outlining what they need to know **in five minutes or less**?

Smart Brevity contains a ton of quality content in a smart easy-to-read format.

It highlights the importance of brevity in communications through a variety of settings including: Work, Email, Newsletters, Social Media, Presentations, Meetings, etc.

Run don't walk to buy yourself a copy of this book and put these methods to work for you right away!

Thanks to Net Galley and Workman Publishing Company for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in return for my honest review. I have not received any compensation and my review was not pre-reviewed or edited by any other person.

For everyone who writes. Ensure you are heard. Put readers first. Don't waste their time. Smart, sharp and to the point. Axios/Politico founders have the chops to teach what they practice. Valuable lessons you can use right away.

This is a great and short guide for digital communication. The focus on how to get to the point for shortened attention spans online. Is incredibly helpful. The advice like the advice and examples really illuminated how to catch and maintain attention.

The most transformative on book on writing I've ever read.

Why it matters: Smart Brevity helps you cut through the noise in your writing and adapt to new attention age of TikTok and short form video.

Some caveats: The book is an early review copy so there are some grammar errors and "art for position" that can take away from the reading experience. However, I'm expecting that errors will be fixed on the release.

The bottom line: If you want to make your writing better for you and your audience then Smart Brevity is the way.

Thank you to both #NetGalley and Workman Publishing Company for providing me an advance copy of the reference title, Smart Brevity, in exchange for an honest review.

Do you receive Axois newsletters? If so, you finished this book. Bravo! Both you and I have completed the exercises in less words than the authors could. If not, the gist is >6 word title, a lede, why it matters, and give your audience the option to dig deeper. That is the premise of how to use their technique, #SmartBrevity.

Ironically, the authors fail to follow several of their touted axioms, lack support for their statistics, make many false generalizations, and adopt a condescending tone. The book is also redundant—whether or not this is intentional for learning purposes, beats me.

Although I support some of their writing techniques and viewpoints, it is mainly for middle management and businesspeople who make your life a living hell. (See colleague’s Zoom presentation from this morning that most definitely could have been an email).

Thus, I highly recommend gifting #SmartBrevity to wordy bosses, managers, family members or friends who send lengthy emails, and those employed in marketing/social media. The book is certainly not meant for every type of writing nor career.

Finally, I struggled to find the appropriate rating. On the one hand, their tips are helpful for people who are not strong writers or self-editors. The authors also make clear the value of applying their tips to business communications, such as emails, newsletters, and presentations. Additionally, the #SmartBrevity model works for the modern attention span.

On the other hand, it is hard to swallow that this book was written by these three individuals, given their past careers. It feels like they are perpetuating possibly the inevitable, but why speed up the process? Succinct and clear statements are absolutely effective in certain situations. However, I think the way they present this notion is cringe-inducing. More <s> of a </s> gimmick, less <s> of a </s> writing exercise.

3.5 rounded-up; mostly, for recycled ideas.