A notice with room to grow

Text: an original contemporary opinion-column-style practice extract.

The community noticeboard introduced a twenty-word limit for every notice. I supported it. The old board had been crowded with curled pages, and an event date could disappear beneath paragraphs of explanation. A short limit seemed a practical way to help people find the information they needed.

Then I tried to post a notice asking for volunteers to record local residents’ memories. “Volunteers needed for local history recordings. All ages welcome. Contact the library by Friday,” fitted easily. But it did not say that people could contribute without being interviewed, or that the recordings would be kept only with their permission. Those details were not decoration: they could affect whether someone felt comfortable replying.

Other notices had the same problem. A repair group could state where it met, but not what tools newcomers should bring. A parent looking for a lost coat had to leave out its unusual lining. The board did look clearer, and dates were easier to spot. Still, clarity is not the same as usefulness if important details have been removed.

The limit works well for simple announcements, and I would keep it for those. Notices asking people to take part, or needing to explain a choice, should have more space. A small section of the board could allow longer notices, reviewed regularly so that it does not become crowded again. The rule solved one problem, but it should not make every message fit the same shape.

In this extract, the writer tries to persuade readers that a strict word limit for community notices should allow exceptions.

Evaluate how successfully this is achieved. Support your views with detailed reference to the extract.

You may wish to consider:

• what the writer says about the rule at the start
• the examples the writer gives of information that is left out
• what the writer says about simple announcements and exceptions in the final paragraph.