I am ruthless as an editor. If you put a presentation in front of me, I will try to edit it until it is (in my mind) a precisely written thing of beauty.

A blog I like, The Minimalists, focus on minimalism in general….including writing. I like their 11 things to focus on, but in particular:

“Writing is 30% composition, 70% editing.”  The goal here is to use as few words as possible without the reader needing to ask questions. Too often, we use too many words to try and explain something….which only confuses the reader. We often pick the wrong word when precision matters, we omit the words we need to clarify.

Be ruthless when you write. Cross out every unnecessary word. Put it away, and look at it again. See where the gaps are: where you might lose people because you’re not clear. Rewrite it so it’s clearer.

The best presentations are the ones where you’re doing a minimum of explaining.