The Rule of Three
"Third time lucky!" we all say.
"Bad news comes in threes."
"I'm going to count to three!" we tell our kids.
Just what is it about the number three?
We have the Holy Trinity, the Three Musketeers, a ménage à trois ...
The three witches in Macbeth, the Three Little Pigs, the Three Bears ...
Spells and incantations from all religions use the magic number of three ... and so it goes on ...
It's a number that crops up all the time in everyday speech. Listen closely the next time a friend or associate is ticking off options, it will nearly always be along the lines of, "... first, there's A, secondly there's B and thirdly, there's C ..." or "I can give you three good reasons why we should X ..."
(Even the ellipse ... the dots used to indicate a pause ... is a series of three dots, no more and no less!)
Writers throughout history have recognised the power of the number three:
Julius Caesar's most remembered line would have to be Veni, vidi, vici! (I came, I saw, I conquered!)
Benjamin Disraeli bemoaned the existence of "three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics!"
And civic-minded people dreamed up the classic road-safety campaign: "Stop, look and listen!"
So, if the number three IS such a powerful force, can it be harnessed to improve your bottom line?
Yes.
If you're writing for business, you should always use bulleted lists to make your key points stand out in your advertising, so organise your material into threes:
give your buyers three reasons to buy your product
suggest three benefits
offer three different ways to purchase your product
And finish with three testimonials from satisfied customers.
No doubt about it, the number three packs a punch! So, brush up your writing skills and then start writing: http://www.write101.com/writing.html
Ready. Set. Go!
"Bad news comes in threes."
"I'm going to count to three!" we tell our kids.
Just what is it about the number three?
We have the Holy Trinity, the Three Musketeers, a ménage à trois ...
The three witches in Macbeth, the Three Little Pigs, the Three Bears ...
Spells and incantations from all religions use the magic number of three ... and so it goes on ...
It's a number that crops up all the time in everyday speech. Listen closely the next time a friend or associate is ticking off options, it will nearly always be along the lines of, "... first, there's A, secondly there's B and thirdly, there's C ..." or "I can give you three good reasons why we should X ..."
(Even the ellipse ... the dots used to indicate a pause ... is a series of three dots, no more and no less!)
Writers throughout history have recognised the power of the number three:
Julius Caesar's most remembered line would have to be Veni, vidi, vici! (I came, I saw, I conquered!)
Benjamin Disraeli bemoaned the existence of "three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics!"
And civic-minded people dreamed up the classic road-safety campaign: "Stop, look and listen!"
So, if the number three IS such a powerful force, can it be harnessed to improve your bottom line?
Yes.
If you're writing for business, you should always use bulleted lists to make your key points stand out in your advertising, so organise your material into threes:
give your buyers three reasons to buy your product
suggest three benefits
offer three different ways to purchase your product
And finish with three testimonials from satisfied customers.
No doubt about it, the number three packs a punch! So, brush up your writing skills and then start writing: http://www.write101.com/writing.html
Ready. Set. Go!
posted by Jennifer | 11:20 am
18 Comments:
Way to go , Jennifer!. Nice layout and prime content as always.
I have been teaching the rule of three in selling, negotiation and leadership/ management coaching and training for years.
I am a true believer in the power of three...maybe we should set up a cult!...;-))
....but we'll need three people....;-))
Warm Regards,
Maitiu
In my life things have always happened in three's I also believe I am 3 types of people. Mother, Career woman and partner.
first i want to say that the #3 is a miraculous number secondly I will be using all the tips for my exam to come and thirdly / number 3 comment is telling Maitiu i would want to be apart of that cult.
kem in J.A
Vini vidi vici, 199 and 999 are numbers religious beleived by people as evil numbers or denote evil to come. Your smart knowledge of this I Hail. I have been using threes but never before now, thought about the power that has always worked for me.The THREE's
I would like to add another wonderful three to it...We also have three tenses: Past, Present and Future.
Kind Regards
God Bless
Deepa Bansal
It is, indeed, musketeers. ;-)
Having been raised with the adage "they always come in threes", I can attest to the power of that thought. ;-)
I have never thought about this power of three until now. It's quite amazing at how powerful when someone started counting... 1, 2, 3..see the reactions!
-GOD which stands for
Generator,Observer and Destroyer
Which again known as TRINITY,according to Hindu Mythology known as BHRAMMA;VISHNU;
MAHESHWARA.
LAW OF THE UNIVERSE:
IF U DO GOOD OR BAD IT COMES BACK
THREE TIMES OVER
THE RULE OF THREE can be also First for LISTEN , second for UNDERSTAND and the third for ACT to bring out fine tuned development of self and which can be a practical TESTIMONY to others.
The Rule of Three is in a triangular base cosists of THREE sides, Intution,Inspiration and Involvement for self-Development and to expose the enrichment to guide others.
isn't it "3 times the charm"?
Great way to analyze!I had not thought of it this way. Words are powerful and stubborn and taming them is challenging. You seem to get a handle on them.
I want to add to your Threes:
Executive; Legislative and Judiciary branches of government.
Osman Bah
Generally in indain methology and in ingian civilization it beleive that no.3 is not good anywhere
still i can not figuer out how the three rules going to help me in improving my writing. Yes in our life there is a big relation between threes and events that take place in it not just nowadays, is it that we have to justify our attuites in threes our what?
In the story of creation, for some reason, G-d decided to bless the third day of creation in a special way. He said the word "Ki Tov" ('Good' in Hebrew) twice rather than once. On that day, he created the earth separately from the sky, and added vegetation (such as seeds) to grow from the earth. I'm not very religious, but to me this makes sense.
Plus, I happen to be born on the
3rd of Feb. so the more reason to be happy!!!
yesterday,today,tommorow ;)
I'd like to add the note that although the post mentioned it works, it failed to mention why. Artistically speaking, an odd grouping (three or five) is more visually pleasing than an even one. And linguistically, it works because it sets up a logical order: first time makes an incident, second time defines it as a pattern, and the third time allows the pattern/problem to be solved.
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