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We’ve been talking about how to write in the business world. Here’s my starting point:

"Short sentences, short paragraphs, active verbs, authenticity, compression, clarity and immediacy."

Recognise this? It’s Ernest Hemingway. It’s the first thing he was taught as a young reporter on the Kansas City Star. He later said: "Those were the best rules I ever learned for the business of writing. I've never forgotten them."

It’s easy to forget ourselves that when Hemingway was writing like this it was near-revolutionary. This style of writing is almost commonplace today. He did away with all the florid prose of the Victorian era and replaced it with a lean, clear prose based on action rather than reflection.

Nowadays if people ask me to recommend a book on business writing, I give them a copy of The Old Man and the Sea. Just 100 pages. Not a word is wasted. It’s written for a 12-year-old and yet it won Hemingway the Nobel Prize.

Communicators in business can learn a lot from Hemingway.