30 LinkedIn Tips: #16/30 – Write like Hemingway

• Originally written: October 16, 2017
  Text & Images Updated: June 30, 2020

“He looked down the hill slope again and he thought, I hate to leave it, is all. I hate to leave it very much and I hope I have done some good in it. I have tried to with what talent I had. Have, you mean. All right, have.” 

That's from the final chapter of For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway.

I'm not suggesting you set your profile in the Spanish Civil War.

My point is that Ernest Hemingway wrote with astonishing simplicity and clarity.

You should write your profile with a similar aim: be clear and simple.

I don't know anyone who claims to write as well as Hemingway, or does, but luckily, there's a handy online tool that helps.

Appropriately, it's called the Hemingway App.

Improve your writing with the free online tool at hemingwayapp.com

Go to the web site, drop your text into the app, and it helps you make your text clearer, with advice on —

• Readability Index
• Ease of Reading
• Making phrases simpler
• Removing adverbs
• Avoiding the passive voice (Oops, I wrote that in the passive voice).

The good news is - it's free, and you can access the Hemingway App it from any web browser. You can also buy an inexpensive Mac or PC Hemingway app to work offline.

• Just visit http://www.hemingwayapp.com/ and drop in your text from your clipboard, or start writing there from scratch.

It's great to see how quickly you can improve your writing, and to benchmark how legible your text is.

But I warn you - it can be depressing at first!

I ran a few random LinkedIn Profile Summaries through it. The app really shows how easy it is to add clarity to your writing. I found a minimum of 40% of sentences were “very hard to read” in a sample of five summaries.

Your visitors deserve an easy to read profile.

So get to work on your profile. Aim for clarity. Write like Hemingway.

• Bonus just for fun: Find out which author you actually write like at http://iwl.me/

• More Tips: 30 Top Tips for a better LinkedIn Profile – Rounded up and summarised…
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