No one can say just how long a message should be, but you rarely hear complaints about a speech being too short. The amateur worries about what he is going to put in his speech or article. The expert worries about what he should take out.
Interpretation
Effective communication focuses on clarity and brevity, prioritizing what is essential.
In this quote, Edgar Dale emphasizes the importance of conciseness in communication, suggesting that the length of a message is less important than its clarity and relevance. While amateurs may struggle with what to include, experts understand the value of trimming unnecessary content to enhance the impact of their message.
In practice
During a public speaking seminar, emphasizing that shorter speeches often leave a greater impression.
One of the curious things about censorship is that no one seems to believe in it for himself. We want censorship to protect someone else— the young, the unstable, the suggestible, the stupid. I have never heard of anyone who wanted a film or speaker banned because otherwise he himself might be harmed.
Good writing, and this is especially important in a subject such as economics, must also involve the reader in the matter at hand. It is not enough to explain. The images that are in the mind of the writer must be made to reappear in the mind of the reader, and it is the absence of this ability that causes much economic writing to be condemned, quite properly, as abstract.
As citizens, I'm asking you not to leave any child behind. I'm asking you not to be color blind, but to be color brave, so that every child knows that their future matters and their dreams are possible.
My father paid for my education; then he made it clear that I was on my own.
Having the freedom to read and the freedom to choose is one of the best gifts my parents ever gave me.
What is a child? Ignorance. What is a child? Want of instruction.
Teaching is more difficult than learning because what teaching calls for is this: to let learn. The real teacher, in fact, lets nothing else be learned than learning. His conduct, therefore, often produces the impression that we properly learn nothing from him, if by "learning" we now suddenly understand merely the procurement of useful information.
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