Tuesday, February 07, 2006

The Importance of the Delete Button


If F W Boreham was advising writers and preachers today he would tell them that the most important tool on their computer was the Delete button.

A young English minister in Tasmania was preparing for a visit to the Homeland and working on an important address he had been invited to give at Spurgeon’s College. He wrote to his mentor, F W Boreham, asking him to go through his twenty five page manuscript and make some suggestions.

In his letter of reply the old man said, “If I may be so bold I would suggest that you delete the first seven pages and let your address commence with page eight!”

Boreham knew the importance of the opening sentences of a talk and the first lines of an article. No preambles for him. Effective communicators must hit the delete button and go to the subject of utmost importance while their audience is fresh and most receptive.