I was trained as a writer throughout my education, so I have very strong feelings about Hemingway, but his editing ideas are on point.
One of the hardest lessons I ever had to learn was how to edit well. I fancy myself an excellent editor of other’s works (in fact, that is about 80% of my job), but when it comes to my own writing, I often hit a wall.
Being concise is not the same as being short, and it’s easy to understand that when it comes to oral conversations, but when it comes to the written word, many often error on the side of caution, and over-explain processes or ideas. When it comes to training, we often over-explain at the beginning, and then wonder why the learners don’t remember how to do something. Instead, we should throw all our ideas down on paper (or on Word) and then get to editing. It’s not as intense as “no commas, no adverbs, so semi-colons”, but don’t write a paragraph when a sentence will do. If it can be a bulleted list, then bullet that list! If it’s a step-by-step process, limit the amount of steps.
We are sometimes so consumed with the technology and the flashy business of training that we forget how important the content is. If you have just created a 64 slide/page training that you are so proud of, but there’s no way a learner can remember the content, then EDIT!
I’m not here to give you arbitrary rules about how many words/bullet points/images should be on a page, but less is more, ornamentation is unnecessary, and if you neglect editing, then your learners will neglect learning.
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