Starting an argument
Image: Peter Costello
At the risk of alienating part of the Red Pony Express readership – or indeed seeming to curry favour with another part – I’d like to dwell for a moment on the writing skills of former Treasurer Peter Costello. For a man who made his reputation on his feet in a courtroom, later on his feet in the Parliament, it probably isn’t surprising to discover he’s also rather handy with the written word.
In recent times he has popped up on the opinion pages of the Fairfax papers either to defend his version of history against competing, bushy-eyebrowed views, or to take a swing at the current government. Whatever the case he is making, he makes it with extraordinary economy, clarity and directness. This can hardly be said of any of his recent parliamentary contemporaries, although Graham Richardson can be astringent at times.
Consider Peter Costello’s recent article on preference deals leading up to the recent Victorian election.
He starts at the end, in proper journalistic style, by summarising his argument in a single sentence: ‘Some in the Liberal Party want to give their main opponents a free kick.’ Got the point? Impossible to miss, isn’t it? No big words, appropriate use of local idiom (free kick) to catch the attention of the audience, and not one word more than necessary.
In the rest of the article he sets out the evidence; again, in short, simple, memorable sentences: ‘This is a wasteland for Liberal candidates.’ ‘The base of Labor’s Socialist Left is defecting.’
And where an opportunity to create a long, run-on sentence presents itself, he resists: ‘The level of protest should worry Labor. It is eating away a base that was once rock solid. A party that cannot hold its base is headed for long-term decline.’
Assertion. Evidence. Conclusion.
He’s not trying to impress with his use of language. There are no words that would trouble a 12-year-old. There are only a handful of words longer than 3 syllables, and none of them are unfamiliar. The reader will not get lost.
This is an 800-word article, but I’m sure it took 10 times as long in the planning (i.e. thinking) as it did in the writing.
When you know what you want to say – when you’ve taken the time to get your thoughts clear in your own mind – it becomes a far simpler matter to organise those thoughts on the page.
