Keep Your Project Updates to 300 Words
Who actually decides how long a piece of writing should be? It is not the writer. It is the reader. And today’s reader is holding a phone.
What the Word Counts Showed
I did some homework before I spoke in detail to some writers and publishers in my professional network. I gathered a variety of media articles, government summaries, and industry briefs and ran word counts on each one.
Most of the pieces were approximately 300 words.
Most digital news stories fell between 250 and 350 words.
Public‑facing summaries from agencies were often under 400 words.
Pieces that exceeded 500 words required scrolling, rereading, or skimming subtitles.
I couldn’t find a formal rule. However, professional discussions confirmed the pattern. The material that people actually read tends to be short; the material that people skim tends to be long.
300 Words Is A Recent Shift
The 300‑word threshold is not a long‑standing communication standard. Most professional writing followed print conventions before smartphones. News briefs were often 400 to 600 words. Executive summaries were often 2 to 5 pages (though most of us learned the “one-pager” in business school).
Even the trade press, such as Engineering News-Record and Construction Dive, now leans on short digital news items and daily briefs.
Many media outlets shortened their digital stories as mobile reading overtook desktop reading. Social media conditioned all of us to expect short, digestible content. Decision makers are no exception. They read your briefing the same way they read everything else.
Short Is Not the Same as Simple
Senior leaders and decision boards scan for what matters to them. A 300‑word piece is short in time and length.
An adult whose first language is English reads silently at about 240 words per minute, so 300 words takes a little over a minute to read. Spoken at a typical presentation pace of 130 to 150 words per minute, it takes about two minutes. One minute to read. Two minutes to say. Readers working in a second language need longer, which is one more reason to keep it short.
A 300‑word limit forces the writer to prioritize. The challenge is delivering that level of clarity without oversimplifying.
“I have made this longer than usual because I have not had time to make it shorter.” – Blaise Pascal.
Being brief and concise takes more time. And more writing skill. Most of us underestimate both.
What Goes in the 300 Words
Most project updates to senior management are just that: updates. There is no decision on the table, and the audience is not as close to the project as the people on the front line. A simple order works well.
Where the project stands. One or two plain‑language sentences on what the project is and what phase it is in. Do not assume they remember.
What changed. Progress (milestones) and any schedule or budget movement since the last update.
Top risks or issues. Two or three, not ten, and what you are doing about them.
What it means. Who is affected and how the work supports the organization’s strategic goals.
What comes next. Key milestones before the next update, and any support you need.
Avoid a chronological sequence.
We’re taught the scientific method and tend to explain the time sequence of how we worked through it. The decision maker doesn’t need to know how you made the watch, just what time it is. And 300 words is all the time you have.
Provide 300-Word Project Summaries
My experience reviewing word counts and talking with industry experts points to a trend toward shorter summaries. People read short content and skim long content. For project managers, the goal should be to be read. A disciplined 300‑word update is one of the most effective tools to achieve that.
JDS Note: I hope you benefited from this 600‑word article about using a 300‑word limit (Ha!). More seriously, I do adhere closely to 300 words for executive briefings and blog tips. My longer blog articles, like this one, are more old school because the target audience (technical professionals) usually prefers more detail. But note the subheadings that are built for skimming. If you visit the Communicating with FINESSE Substack page, you will see articles that are regularly richer in detail and exceed 1,000 words, with subheadings, quotes, and callout boxes for easier skimming.
JD Solomon Inc. provides solutions for program development, asset management, and facilitation at the nexus of facilities, infrastructure, and the environment. Visit our Program Development page for more information on business cases, third-party assessments, phasing projects, and related services.
JD Solomon champions practical communication skills that help technical professionals convey complex ideas clearly and confidently. Learn more at www.jdsolomonsolutions.com and www.communicatingwithfinesse.com.
Comments