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#DudeYouLost, A Man of Words Chooses the Perfect Three
Sometimes you nail it. Writing lessons from Dan Rather.
I woke up this morning to find Dan Rather trending on Twitter and was quite relieved to see that he wasn’t dead but instead had crafted the perfect tweet for the moment.
As a writer, I can’t help but admire every aspect of this tweet.
The Hook
That first word is a hook so perfect that writing dissertations could be written about this one word alone.
“Dude” is not a form of address you expect to come out of an 89 year-old-man dripping with professional gravitas. Rather could have gone with the expected play of a highly ironic “Sir” but instead he leads with the language of laid back surfer culture gone mainstream. He hints at the image of The Big Lebowski.
Not only does this word surprise and capture the attention, but it also conveys an astonishing level of information and tone-setting for one simple four-letter word. You are disheveled and clueless, it says to the subject addressed. You are not…
