How to use ‘The Rule of Three’ as a Powerful Technique to Improve Your Copywriting.
Make your writing more memorable, engaging, and satisfying to read.
“Use 3 of them, it just sounds better that way.”
This was the best piece of advice I have ever received about improving my writing. It came from my English teacher when I was 10 years old and has stuck with me ever since.
Advertisers, copywriters, and storytellers know there is something deeply satisfying about phrases with 3 things in them. Consider some of the more memorable film titles (The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly) or marketing slogans (Snap! Crackle! Pop!). Noticed anything?
This method is everywhere
After my teacher’s advice, the more I looked, the more I saw this simple trick was being used everywhere. Adverts, stories, textbooks, films — essentially anywhere where the written word was being used to persuade, inform and engage the reader. It was hiding in plain sight. Feeling as though I had just discovered how the ‘copywriting matrix’ worked and I became casually obsessed with spotting the method in use.
Using the rule in storytelling
This technique is very common in storytelling. Fairytales are a goldmine for applying ‘The Rule of Three’ to create engaging, memorable, and enjoyable reading. This is possibly best exemplified in “Goldilocks and the 3 Bears”. The motif of 3 is repeated again and again as Goldilocks tours the different parts of the bears’ house finding things either ‘not too hot, not too cold, but just right’. I could have just as easily used “The 3 Little Pigs” and with the “big, bad wolf” who will “huff, puff, and blow your house down”.
The psychology behind it
So, what is actually going on here? Why do readers find ‘The Rule of Three’ just so hard to resist? It doesn’t work by pure luck; there’s a little psychology at play. By our very nature, humans are pattern-seeking creatures. Our brains are constantly performing their own neurological Rorschach Test on our environment. They seek meaning and patterns in random events to try and make sense of the world. Three is the minimum amount of information needed to establish a pattern. One thing exists on its own. Two things are comparable but different. Three allows us to compare the range and see a pattern in the system. Brains love things in threes!
One thing is a single event (“Nothing of note here.”). Using two events might be a coincidence (“Does the second relate to the first?”). Using things 3 times shows intentionality (“OK, it does relate.”). Four is overkill (“OK, I get the point now…”).
Using ‘The Rule of Three’ in your writing
So how do you work some of these principles into your writing to give it the added edge? In keeping with the principles of ‘The Rule of Three’, I’ll give my (you’ve guessed it) top 3 uses.
1. Describing something. Describe things with 3 adjectives will make them pop. The adjectives shouldn’t be synonyms. They should all provide additional information to paint the picture. For example:
“The sculpture was big, bold, and beautiful.”
“Sat in the forest, he was cold, alone, and afraid.”
2. Headlines/Titles. For those who blog or write articles for a living, everyone knows the biggest challenge is getting someone to click on the article in the first place. The most obvious way to do this is with an engaging title that doesn’t enter into clickbait territory. When composing your title, consider adding three parts to it. For example
“How I learned to live, love, and eat right”
“Lessons for killer copy; engage, excite, educate”
3. Constructing in 3 acts. In writing terms, using 3 parts fulfills a literary flow. Everybody knows a good story has a beginning, middle, and end. This could alternatively be described as ‘the setup, ‘the journey’, and ‘the resolution’. This won’t be ground-breaking news to many readers. However, the point here is that this principle that people normally apply to storytelling can be expanded to all types of writing.
Take a moment to dissect this article. You will notice there is:
A beginning — The introduction where we lay out the problem/theory/history.
A middle — Give possible solutions/reasons behind the rule.
An end — Conclude with advice and wrap up with the main theme.
This isn’t by accident, and you can only get this structure with a little planning. So, whether you are writing a manual for a kettle, a blog post, or a 600-page novel, plan it to evolve into 3 distinct acts.
The main theme
All writing can benefit from ‘The Rule of Three’ to improve the readers’ experience. Using this method not only makes it satisfying to read, but it also helps to get your point across clearly. Now you’re aware of it, you won’t be able to unsee it being used everywhere to persuade, engage, and entice readers. There you go, I just gave you your first one…
