The MIT OpenCourseWare talk How to Speak by Patrick Winston is a great lecture on this subject: https://youtu.be/Unzc731iCUY
How to Be Clear
31–40 of 58 posts
Re: How to Be Clear
#32I'm personally not a fan of the author's writing style. You can fetishize minimalism and clarity to the point that it undermines your goal. But the content here is good. In TODO list form, I suggest anyone writing something think through: 1. Who are you writing to? 2. Why are you writing to them? 3. What do you want them to know? 4. What do they already know? 5. What style of writing is most effective for this audien…
> 4. What do they already know? Yeah, I've found that this is what's most commonly overlooked when communicated with people at work. They either spend too much time explaining things you already know, or assume context you don't have.
I very much prefer when they explain too much than too little. Yeah, it might be boring to listen to or you might have to skim a big part of the text, but that is much better than being lost.
Re: How to Be Clear
#33„Clarity of writing usually follows clarity of thought. So think what you want to say, then say it as simply as possible.” (from: The Economist Style Guide) I recommend the whole Guide wholeheartedly.
Not really commenting on the guide, but for me, clarity of thought follows writing. Not the reverse.
Same, I usually end up writing anything important twice because the first draft is when I realize all of the things I hadn't thought through.
Re: How to Be Clear
#34I'm personally not a fan of the author's writing style. You can fetishize minimalism and clarity to the point that it undermines your goal. But the content here is good. In TODO list form, I suggest anyone writing something think through: 1. Who are you writing to? 2. Why are you writing to them? 3. What do you want them to know? 4. What do they already know? 5. What style of writing is most effective for this audien…
> 4. What do they already know? Yeah, I've found that this is what's most commonly overlooked when communicated with people at work. They either spend too much time explaining things you already know, or assume context you don't have.
I can’t agree enough on this point. It wastes so much time to overexplain things every time they come up. It doesn’t matter as much until it’s senior people communicating with one other, at which point you can save countless minutes/hours by just trusting each other to be competent on the subject. This is why you should just ask questions when you don’t understand what someone is talking about— let them give you the quick version assuming equal competence, but ask when you DO need clarification. It not only saves time, but builds trust.
Sorry this turned out being less about writing and more about communication in the workplace.
Re: How to Be Clear
#35> Write shorter sentences, with simpler words
What is the urge to write shorter sentences? Short sentences are akin to verbose code in a language like Java. Every new sentence you write must include the essential components of a sentence, the skeleton, for it to be grammatically correct or in Java:
public static void method1(String[] args)
public static void method2(String[] args)
public static void method3(String[] args)
It's also the same type of religiosity with unit testing and TDD that turns codebases into monstrosities and shift focus away from understanding to mere correctness. Non-nuanced sentences in the form of tweets and their corrosive impact on culture and communication are probably another adverse side effect of this devoutness to shorter sentences.
Re: How to Be Clear
#36"Think about what your readers might already know." This alone is an excellent starting point. You know the feeling of dismay when someone starts talking beneath your level of understanding and you fear they'll never go above it? Thinking about what your audience (written or spoken) might already know is the intelligent, considerate, and efficacious thing to do.
I'm writing a primer on music theory, and I have this same fear. I resolve it in three ways:
1) I try to make the writing entertaining enough that people won't mind reading something they already know
2) I added an anchor tag saying "click if you already know this stuff"
3) I added tooltips explaining vocabulary words, so if you skipped a section and end up not knowing everything you thought you did, you can use the tooltips to refresh your memory.
These three factors I think combine in a really nice way. I'm excited to post it here when I'm done with it.
Re: How to Be Clear
#37> Write shorter sentences, with simpler words What is the urge to write shorter sentences? Short sentences are akin to verbose code in a language like Java. Every new sentence you write must include the essential components of a sentence, the skeleton, for it to be grammatically correct or in Java: public static void method1(String[] args) public static void method2(String[] args) public static void method3(String[]…
I wouldn't typically nitpick grammar on this site, but I believe you're trying to demonstrate a point and I want to refute it.
>> An average German sentence is probably 2 or 3 times longer than an English one, I think this has more to do with the users of the language than the language itself, if true it means we can make English pack more punch we just have to change our perspective.
Grammatically speaking, this should be three separate sentences. Your commas should be full stops because they represent three separate thoughts. You could connect them with 'and', but I'd suggest most native speakers would find this unpleasant to read.
I don't want to make it sound like I'm not a fan of long sentences - I think fiction writing benefits from a varied cadence. For business writing, however, I think short- or medium-sized sentences are less intrusive to the average reader.
Re: How to Be Clear
#38Tangentially, this is obviously targeting business or team communication and it's a great collection of practical advice. It made me wonder what the corollary rule set would be when writing fiction. The advice: "Always start by thinking about what you want an audience to understand, know, or do after they’ve seen a piece of communication," could be expanded to include 'feel' or 'envision' or 'wonder'. In some ways, i…
Much science outreach and popular media prioritizes "engagement" and "interest", above understand/know/do.
I recently wondered if one might get more "understand", by authoring content with an added objective of setting up the reader/viewer to "do" bite-sized storytelling - with friends, family, water cooler - thus perhaps both broadening impact, and adding motivation towards understanding.
Fun frame.
Re: How to Be Clear
#39Maybe start by writing a better headline? Clear about what? Does it show me how to be as clear as a piece of glass? ... sigh
Re: How to Be Clear
#40Tangentially, this is obviously targeting business or team communication and it's a great collection of practical advice. It made me wonder what the corollary rule set would be when writing fiction. The advice: "Always start by thinking about what you want an audience to understand, know, or do after they’ve seen a piece of communication," could be expanded to include 'feel' or 'envision' or 'wonder'. In some ways, i…
Much science outreach and popular media prioritizes "engagement" and "interest", above understand/know/do. I recently wondered if one might get more "understand", by authoring content with an added objective of setting up the reader/viewer to "do" bite-sized storytelling - with friends, family, water cooler - thus perhaps both broadening impact, and adding motivation towards understanding. Fun frame.
So... Viral content?