What do Shakespeare, the Bible, the Gettysburg
Address, and a successful fundraising letter have in common?
Magic
words!
And what makes words magic? Their length. Any common word of five letters or
less is magic. Therein lies a formula for success.
I stumbled onto this by accident, sheer good luck, and self-survival in my early days as a freelance fiction writer.
In those days, I had to type my own stories, and for some strange reason, I had a curious breach in my education: I
was simply unable to pronounce, and consequently to spell, big words.
Therefore, rather than face the embarrassment of sending a sloppy manuscript to an editor, I stuck with words that
I could spell -- short words, and common words.
Some of my
stories sold (for an average of $10 each!), so I never started using words I couldn’t spell.
Then, many years later, after I got into writing fundraising letters, I was amazed to discover that with only rare
exceptions, short words and common words were characteristic of successful letters.
Thus, the magic formula.
But truthfully, the formula is not really 100% original with me.
In fact, my formula owes an apology to the research of Dr. Rudolf Flesch, and his original Ph.D. thesis on readability
at Columbia University. Later, he expanded his thesis into a book, The Art of Readable Writing.
.
Flesch worked out two basic formulas
-- one based on a “reading ease” score, the other on a “human interest” score.
In his book, The Art of Readable Writing, Flesch developed the methodology of picking random samples of copy,
counting the number of words, figuring the average sentence length, counting the number of syllables -- and arriving at a
“reading ease” score by joining lines across a bar graph.
Then, he found the “human interest” score by counting the number of personal words and personal sentences.
Using
The Magic Formula
So, with proper thanks to Dr. Flesch, here is my simplified test for the magic formula.
1) Count every word in your letter, including the salutation,
the closing, proper names, numbers, hyphenated words -- everything. Count them all.
2) Now go back and count the
number of words containing five letters or less.
3)
Divide this total by the number of words you have in your letter, and you have your magic formula score.
a. 75% is excellent -- your letter is extremely readable.
b. 70% is acceptable.
c. 65% is a sign of trouble.
d. 60%
is bad news.
e. 55% is bad news.
Choose Your Words With Care!
1)
Beware of Qualifiers
Stay away from words that are twisted by adding “un.”
For example:
The new drug is not unreliable.
You simply
mean:
The new drug is reliable.
When two negatives make a positive, you have successfully confused your reader.
If the person has to struggle with your meaning, the letter flow is blocked.
2) Use words that give your reader a point of contact. Talk to classical
music lovers about the counterpoint of life.
Certain religious words have a special meaning for religious people. But each
religious group has a certain set of trigger words.
Get inside the mind of your
readers. Use their words. Establish a contact.
3)
Learn to Recognize Speech Patterns
As you learn the words that are meaningful to certain audiences, you will discover
interesting speech patterns -- the way the words are strung together. Let these speech patterns flow through
your copy.
The most obvious example is the use of homespun figures of speech:
“We’ve got to help these people and stop spinning our wheels.”
That
sentence, to one audience might strike a common denominator of meaning. But to another audience it might
be considered “talking down.”
4) Practice Building
Word Pictures
Washington Irving, in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, gives us this word picture:
“He was tall, but exceedingly lank, with narrow, sloping shoulders, long arms and legs, hands that dangled
a mile out of his sleeves, and his whole framework most loosely hung together. His head was small ... “
Try
this kind of thing in your letters. Think of giving your readers a little TV screen that flashes a visual
image for your human illustration.
5) Become Familiar With the
Techniques of Narration
Here is a simple way to understand narration: In the traditional Christmas play,
the person who tells the Christmas story is called the narrator -- the story teller.
As a writer, you
become a story teller -- a narrator. And everyone loves a good story!
Sometimes you can begin right in the middle of the action:
This child was abandoned in a garbage dump!
I wasn’t able to say “no” when John applied for a scholarship.
These few words swiftly paint a word picture. You have told
a story. The reader will move along with you.
It’s all in the words.
A
good writer must decide on the “tone” of the appeal. Will it be hard sell? Or
soft sell? Pushy? Or quietly urgent? Dramatic or educational?
Whichever direction you go ...
6) Have the Courage to Use
Trigger Words
Extensive testing has identified certain key words that capture donor attention.
For example:
“Crisis Threatens Hospital!”
“Emergency Funds Needed to Balance 1977 Budget!”
But, unfortunately for writers, the trigger words that raise the most money are the exact same words
that your board and charity executives may feel most uncomfortable about:
Emergency ...
Crisis ...
Disaster ...
Threat ...
Immediate ...
Urgent ...
Hurry ...
and so on.
This is a fact of life you must deal with. People give money
to charities that appear to need the money -- and appear to need it urgently. You will never be able to
escape that reality.
Why in the world does the good old “balance the budget” campaign work
year after year? Why will people send money to repair a damaged roof on a hospital, but not to pay the
lights and water bills? You know the answer.
Here’s a list of the 13 strongest
words in the English language:
Discovery
Results
Proven
New
Safety
You
Health
Early
Money
Save
Guarantee
Love
Free
Check your headlines and subheads.
Be sure you are using some of these words.
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