#don bates

25 words is advised a lot, but that’s an arbitrary average based on newspaper layout tradition. The intent in this case is to "air out” dense text so it’s more visually appealing and easier to read in small chucks. Imagine newspapers with unrelieved 100-word paragraphs? Certainly, we should aim for fewer than 50 words in P.R. writing, preferably 30-35, especially on the Internet and in emails.

“Read, read, read. Read everything — trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write. If it’s good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out of the window.”