Thirteen C words every writer should know.

By Peter P. Jacobi

Writers should remember -- and editors should make sure they remember -- my thirteen Cs.

Thirteen words that begin with the letter C. The words aren't mine, of course. I've just collected them into a list and consider the list worth noting.

One

Considerate is the first word.

To be considerate of the reader ask of the writer. To put the reader first in priority. To plan everything and do everything with the reader in mind. To serve the reader in the best possible way. My feeling is that if the rest of the C words are observed, the reader has been served.

Two

Be concise.

That's word number two. Our readers tell us in all sorts of ways that they're busy. They don't want to be shortchanged, but they want brevity, no wasted words. It was Shaw, I think, who said he was sorry to have written one of his correspondents such a long letter but that he hadn't had the time to write a shorter one.

Editors can be of tremendous help here. I., as a writer, often feel that every word I've poured so painfully onto a page is a gem, a treasure, and that not a single word is cuttable. And then, a competitor comes along, and finds, if necessary, some eminently cuttable words. Like the word "amnesty." It's probably cuttable. Like the word "probably." It's cuttable.

Three

Be correct.

Here, surely, editors can be of help. They question. They research or ask for proof. Writers should rarely be left to their own editing devices. A second person, with the power to distance himself, will find aspects of an article to doubt.

If a writer finds herself to be the only reviewer, to be the writer-editor, then somehow that person should set an earlier deadline, put the manuscript aside for a couple of days, go on to other projects, then return to the previously done article. The passage of time will have distanced the writer, making it easier and more likely to spot flaws.

Four

Be complete.

And once again, the editor becomes a critical link between writer and reader.

For informational completeness, writer and editor need to put all the who-what-one-where-why-how questions on the table and seek the answers to them in the article. Whatever isn't there needs to be added, or at least the absence thereof needs to be explained. The exercise of asking the questions carefully is vital, lest troubling holes get in the reader's way.

Often, absolute informational completeness is impossible. Articles aren't long enough to hold all the available information. In that case, atmospheric completeness should be aimed for. Selected into the articles should be those elements deemed absolutely essential -- part of the central issue, information which, if absent, will leave the reader in a state of dissatisfaction, knowing that something is wrong, something is missing, that his education, on the basis of this article, is insufficient, deficient.

That's four C words. I promised you thirteen. I'll complete that promise in a future issue. The other nine C words are forthcoming.

A classic article from a past issue in tribute to the late Peter P. Jacobi, longtime EO writer and author of The Magazine Article: How to Think It, Plan It, Write It.

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