How many words have you read so far? Would you believe less than 400?

Now in fiction, it's hard to get to the butler in 400 words, let alone that the butler did it.

In broadcast news, the talking heads progress at 150 to 200 words per minute.

The average newspaper feature runs 400 to 600 words.

The average text under a Victoria Secret catalog picture stretches 16 to 20 words. (Never under-estimate the power of research.)

A basic principle in New Economy English is to offer information in various digestible levels of detail.

From a text amplified link (10 words) to a brief overview (50 words) to a high-level summary (200) to as much grey text as can be stuffed into a page (and most likely to be printed out and saved for later.)

Which gets us to to Rule No 2: the hierarchy of information, and the visual presentation of that information, will always trump blather. >>>