Details Matter

The Importance of Specificity

- BY DON VAUGHAN

Story is king when it comes to freelance writing, and supporting details beyond the basic facts help keep story on the throne. Specifics bring life to prose, add color and context, and inform the reader along the way, enhancing the reading experience.

The use of specifics to enhance an article may sound like Freelance Writing 101, but it can be problematic for many writers. A reliance on generalities is both a cheat and disrespectful to the reader, who is denied the factual tidbits that can turn a good read into a great one.

I became a writer because I have a strong interest in the world around me. I want to know everything about everything, well beyond the basics. If something is really old, I want to know exactly how old, because there is a meaningful difference between “a couple of centuries” and “215 years.” The former is a cloudy generalization, the latter a specific fact that sheds additional light.

Some might argue that there is nothing wrong with generalities. After all, information is still being conveyed. Big is big, long is long, ancient is ancient. Who cares if we don't include the actual specifics of those things? I would argue that our readers care, and we should, too. It doesn't take that much more time to learn that the distance between New York City and Washington, D.C., via I-95, is 228.4 miles, rather than just “a little more than 200 miles.” Or that the Statue of Liberty stands exactly 305 feet tall, including its 154-foot pedestal, rather than just “close to 300 feet.” These are the kinds of facts that can make an article really sing and draw the reader even deeper into the narrative. They just learned something fascinating, and they hunger for more. The savvy writer feeds that hunger with absolutes.

The King of Specificity