Excellent advice on how to write clearly bubbles up all around us.
At the funeral of U.S. Rep. John Lewis, his deputy chief of staff quoted him on how to communicate with conviction: "Make it plain, make it simple, make it sing."
In other words, use plain language, structure simple sentences. Choose words that make your music memorable. The music expresses your personal style, lifting your voice above the deadening language of user manuals.
To feel the power of simplicity, consider lyrics from the Great American Songbook.
I've been enjoying a weekly Zoom session organized by Michael Lasser, author of three books on popular music and American culture, and for 40 years host of the Peabody Award-winning program "Fascinatin' Rhythm" on WXXI public radio in Rochester, N.Y.
In our meetings, a dozen or so friends discuss melodies and lyrics of songs from the 1920s to the '50s, many by Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, George and Ira Gershwin, Rodgers and Hammerstein.
We recently took up the 1939 song "I Thought About You," music by Jimmy Van Heusen, lyrics by Johnny Mercer. Here's a taste:
I took a trip on a train, and I thought about you.
I passed a shadowy lane, and I thought about you.
Two or three cars parked under the stars, a winding stream,
Moon shining down on some little town,
And with each beam, the same old dream.
Talk about simplicity: trip, train, lane, cars, stars, stream, moon, town, beam, dream. Not only are those nouns simple, they are concrete. And the verbs: took, thought, passed, parked. Google some performances to feel the rhythm of the language — conversational, easy to understand, memorable.
And now the annual reprise of my favorite expression of these principles, in the tune sung by the great trombonist Jack Teagarden:
Say it simple, so I can understand,
Use all the easy words at your command.
Don't tell lies, I never cared for fiction,
Talk real clear, don't want no friction with your diction.
Can I hear an Amen?
Twin Cities writing coach and Emmy Award-winner Gary Gilson, who taught journalism at Colorado College, can be reached at writebetterwithgary.com.
