The secret of popular writing is never to put more on a given page than the common reader can lap off it with no strain whatsoever on his habitually slack attention.

  - Ezra Pound

The next time you’re seeking perfection, resist the urge to edit yourself to death. One of the best lessons I’ve ever learned was early in my career when a high ranking vice-president of communications took one look at something I had painstakingly laboured over and said, "you realize no one cares and no one will read this whole thing." As you can imagine, this was not the reaction I had wished for nor anticipated. However, like most parental advice that you don’t agree with at the time, subsequent experience showed me that he was right.

It is easy to justify the holy grail of perfection when writing something that will be seen or heard by your very important audiences. However, the truth is, simpler really is better (note - simpler doesn’t always mean shorter, but if you can say the same thing clearly in less words, go for it). In the nonprofit world, this can be a challenge as most every project is done through a committee process, and multiple people shape and have input into the final product. Too much of this is not a good thing, and will erode and weaken your message. If you find that you are beyond a few drafts of a fundraising appeal or other item, and are at the stage where the comments are focused on specific words - namely changing them for other words of the same meaning - rather than improving the overall content, you may have crossed the tweak line!

Writing for marketing purposes always has an objective, an audience and a specific action in mind. More time spent on agreeing to these up front will make your end result better. Then when it comes to review, the measure of the approval or disapproval should be based on the end goal. This is not to say that well chosen words are less important — but it bears remembering that with more than 171,000 words in the english language, there is always another way to say something. Perfection is entirely subjective. With today’s information top-heavy environment, and my personal lesson in mind, do yourself and your audience a favour, and simplify!