“A term paper, eight
double-spaced pages in length, is due in one month; your exam responses must be
four or five sentences long or you will be penalized; the more you write, the
better your grade will be.” This is the messaging that most college students
face at some point in their academic careers.
Perhaps this scenario doesn’t
bother you, but I find it troublesome that the majority of college professors
make such demands on their students, and I believe our academic system promotes
student compositions showing telltale signs of “quantity over quality.” Thus, I
propose that the existing academic paradigm be replaced with an approach that
more closely resembles the business norm of “less is more.”
Readers in general don’t have
time to scour rambling stories searching for nuggets of information, and these preferences are even more relevant in business. Readers want
it fast and accurate, and they want it now. Let’s prepare our college students
to service those needs.
So where did the system go
wrong?
A case can be made that a “legacy
of length” has been handed down from generation to generation of college
professors as they write their compulsory doctoral theses and eventually grade
the theses of their protégés who face similar trials later on. I call this “trickle-down
verbosity.”
The importance of writing at
length is also revered in the field of scientific research. Maybe it’s because
researchers maintain close ties with higher education. After all, many of them
are faculty or former faculty, or they work on college campuses, and thus, have
not drifted far from the mindset and traditions of their undergraduate and
postgraduate days.
As a public relations and
marketing consultant, I am frequently asked to write pieces that are 250 to
1,500 words in length. Trust me, a lot can be said in 575 words (the length of
this op-ed piece), and I can cover an entire newsletter in 1,750 words. Furthermore,
precise writing is even more valuable in new media where short writings of 450
words or less are generally preferred.
Since my thesis is quality over
quantity, I focus on the world of shorter writings to make a point — the
challenge of professional writing isn’t about how to make it long, but rather, how to make it concise. If you don’t believe this, try to clearly describe
any entity in 100 words down to 25 words in 25-word increments. It’s quite an
undertaking. When you make the final cut down, you will discover that every
word, even every character, must earn its place on paper.
If the business world expects
its copywriters to tell their stories in as few words as possible, why do
college instructors demand long writings from their students? It seems as
though they are training them to perform an exercise they will never repeat
outside the classroom, and setting them up for a rude awakening upon
graduation.
If one of the main purposes of
pursuing higher education in our capitalist society is to obtain gainful
employment, why does academia insist on demanding long writings that have
little relevance to the business world?
I challenge college professors
to take a long look at their practice of requiring students to generate stories
of specific lengths, and find a solution that better prepares students for
their working careers. Shakespeare said it best in act two of Hamlet: “brevity is the soul of wit”.
Note: this story was written in October 2007, but edited and published in September 2013.
