ClearTips: Powerful paragraphs

Count the elements

If you have two or three discrete details to support your point, your readers may absorb them better if they are counted.

This paragraph does not count the supporting sentences:

The stance and style of the inaugurals seem to have gone through some different phases. The phase that lasted until Lincoln was that of the modest, classic public servant. William Howard Taft marked the end of the phase of the prosaic government executive. We are still in the phase of the assertive, theatrical leader-preacher. This classification is not waterproof. Theodore Roosevelt may belong in the theatrical leader-preacher phase and Warren G. Harding-Calvin Coolidge-Herbert Hoover in the prosaic government executive phase. But the trend is clear.

How many phases were there? Not clear. Note the difference that counting can make:

The stance and style of the inaugurals seem to have gone through three phases. The first, lasting until Lincoln, was that of the modest, classic public servant. The second, lasting through William Howard Taft, was of the prosaic government executive. The third, in which we are still, is the phase of the assertive, theatrical leader-preacher. This classification is not waterproof. Theodore Roosevelt may belong in the third phase and Warren G. Harding-Calvin Coolidge-Herbert Hoover in the second. But the trend is clear.

Here are two more examples of counting:

Two durable impressions of the past two decades: first, women have made considerable progress in a short time in building human capabilities; and second, women have gone a considerable distance towards gender equality in education and health. These impressions are cause for hope, not pessimism, in the future.

Digitalization implies three things. First, that music can be faithfully recorded on a durable medium. That part has already happened, and saved the music business without changing it much. Second, that such recordings can be compressed and distributed in new ways. That is just beginning in America. Third, it implies that computers can speak the language of music.

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