Welcome to the age of the incredible shrinking message.
Your guide to this new landscape, Christopher Johnson reveals the once-secret knowledge of poets, copywriters, brand namers, political speechwriters, and other professional verbal miniaturists. Each chapter discusses one tool that helps short messages grab attention, communicate instantly, stick in the mind, and roll off the tongue. Piled high with examples from corporate slogans to movie titles to product names, Microstyle shows readers how to say the most with the least, while offering a lively romp through the historic transformation of mass media into the media of the personal.
“A work of pop linguistics... [that] synthesizes… grammar, branding, cognitive science and Web theory… with intelligence and friendly wit.” — New York Times
“With advice for writing compelling blogs, pitches, ads, slogans, and social-media postings, Johnson’s sophisticated, richly referenced, and example-filled microstyle guide is distinctive, instructive, enjoyable, and inspiring.” — Booklist
“Makes accessible a number of ideas that… most of us need to learn if we are going to thrive as writers in the 21st century.” — The Writer
