How to Be Clear
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How to Be Clear
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Re: How to Be Clear
#2„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.
Re: How to Be Clear
#3Tangentially, 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, it would call for de-tuning the precision and intentionally introducing vagueness, demotic or evocative language.
Re: How to Be Clear
#4This advice is for getting people to understand without much thinking. That's not always the goal.
Re: How to Be Clear
#5"Resist the urge to appear smart"
Re: How to Be Clear
#6For the sharps bin a diagram or icon would be useful.
Re: How to Be Clear
#7[deleted]
Re: How to Be Clear
#8"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.
Re: How to Be Clear
#9This makes me sad. Instead of educating ourselves, we're supposed to give up and write for the lowest common denominator, whose reading skills continue to erode. I don't need my technical documents to read like DFW, but let's not take all the fun out of it.
Re: How to Be Clear
#10I'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 audience and intention?
What remains is to use 5 to describe the difference between 4 and 3 in order to accomplish 2. The primary challenge is that 1 is often not a single person and the wider the audience you choose, the fuzzier all of the subsequent answers become. The single best thing you can do to become a stronger writer is to be courageous about selecting a narrow audience.