'The Axios Guide to Writing Well' Is Neither Smart Nor Brief

Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen, and Roy Schwartz have failed to translate the power of the successful rhetorical style pioneered in their political website, Axios, into a book. Smart Brevity, as its title implies, argues for a writing style that is short and punchy and trims the fat from most corporate, academic, and personal communication. The book advocates short (no sentence longer than six words!), declarative judgments like the sentence that begins this review—a sentence that, while meeting the authors’ stylistic criteria, is not entirely fair to the book or to you, the reader of this review.