If you have a twitter account, you know a lot about being concise—that is, about getting messages across without wasting words—since Twitter limits writers to 140 characters. Recently, New York Times editor Bill Keller started a discussion by tweeting, “Twitter makes you stupid. Discuss.” That little comment drew a large number of responses, including one from his wife that read, “I don’t know if Twitter makes you stupid, but it’s making you late for dinner. Come home.”

No matter how you feel about the effects of Twitter on the brain (or stomach!), you can make any writing more effective by using clear structures and choosing words that convey exactly what you mean to say.