BUILDING YOUR PRACTICE
Write Your Business
Gettysburg Address
By Chris Amorosino
Freelance business writer Chris John
Amorosino creates marketing content for
corporations, independent businesses, and
nonprofits.You can reach Chris at
[email protected].
Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address is
one of the most elegant and well-known
writings in American history. Notice why
Lincoln’s address succeeded so far beyond
all expectations and you can vastly improve your next business communication.
You can write your own business’s Gettysburg Address. Lincoln can teach you seven
key lessons.
1. Cover an important topic. Of
course your business topic won’t be
as critical as Lincoln’s. His address
eloquently describes our national purpose. But do make your business writing of real importance to your audience.
If what you’re saying isn’t new, important, or useful, walk away from your
keyboard and do something worthwhile.
2. Be short. The main speaker in Gettysburg on November 19, 1863 was the
former president of Harvard and the
nation’s leading orator, Edward Everett.
He spoke for two hours. He delivered
13,607 words. Lincoln spoke for three
minutes. He used 272 words in ten
sentences. Make your business writing
brief. No one has ever complained that
a marketing or other business communication was just too darn short.
3. Learn from writing masters. Lincoln deliberately echoed the style of
the Bible. He never mentions the Bible,
but the whole of his speech is suffused
with both biblical content and cadence.
He also adapted techniques used by renowned writers he had read like Senator Daniel Webster and Chief Justice
John Marshall. Know what’s working
for today’s best business writers.
4. Speak your audience’s language.
The vast majority of Lincoln’s words
derived from Anglo-Saxon and Norman
roots. They were words Americans of
the day actually spoke. If you’re writing to young women, write in ways
that reflect how young women speak.
If you’re writing to baseball lovers, consider sprinkling in terms like “out in
left field,” “ducks on a pond,” “batting a
thousand,” and others that your audience knows and appreciates.
5. Be clear. The Gettysburg Address is
revered not only for its brevity but for
its clarity. Lincoln avoided most Greek
and Latin words (they tend to be longer and more complex). Among his 272
words, Lincoln used 204 single syllable
words. Don’t overawe the elocutionist
with protracted, anomalous lexicon.
6. Use rhythm and style. Historian
Garry Wills argues that “Lincoln’s
words acquired a flexibility of structure, a rhythmic pacing, a variation
in length of words and phrases and
clauses and sentences, that make his
sentences move ‘naturally’ for all their
density and scope.” Good business writing has pace. It sounds good to the ear.
Like Roy Peter Clark says, “brevity loves
company—in the form of substance
and style.”
7. Remember there’s no such thing
as good writing. No one knows exactly
where Lincoln wrote his Gettysburg Address. Everyone knows that he edited
and edited and, did I mention that he
edited? When you write your business
message, know that the first draft is
like an evil step-mother to the beautiful
princess of prose you will birth on your
third or eighth or 21st draft. There is no
such thing as good writing; there is only
good rewriting.
The Gettysburg Address is so revered that
it was recited 139 years later to honor the
dead at the 9/11 Commemoration. But
perhaps the greatest tribute to Lincoln’s
writing was what Edward Everett, the nation’s greatest orator wrote to Lincoln the
day after both of their speeches: “I should
be glad, if I could flatter myself, that I came
as near to the central idea of the occasion
in two hours as you did in two minutes.”
CL
Connecticut Lawyer January/February 2017
29