This post is about writing with clarity.* It's tempting to write with fancy language and complicated sentences, but writing clearly is one of the best things you can do for your readers.
It’s important to write clearly so that (a) readers understand your message and (b) the reading experience is easy for your audience.
9 Tips for Writing Clearly
Luckily, tightening up one's writing is one of the easiest skills for a writer to develop. Here are nine practical ways you can tighten your work:
1. Leave time for revisions.
Editing takes time. Budget enough into your writing schedule.
2. Cut out extra words.
There are always words, sentences, pages, even chapters (!) that can be cut. Do it and don’t look back.**
3. Try footnotes.
They help you get those extra words out of your system.***
4. Err on the side of short.
Short paragraphs, short sentences, and even short words will make your work seem like less of a burden.
5. Breaks are your friend.
No, not writing breaks. Section breaks! Headers tell your reader where you’re going, and give them rest stops on the way there. Chapters are also great—try to create more of them, while keeping your book the same length.
6. Eliminate jargon.
Jargon: special words or expressions that are used by a particular profession or group and are difficult for others to understand. Use words others will understand.
7. Or, explain unfamiliar words.
You see what I did up there? When I defined jargon? If you must use an unfamiliar word, add a sentence or two to explain it. Same goes for unfamiliar concepts or uncommon references.
8. Switch things up with images, charts, or diagrams.
Adam L. Rosman wrote an article on “Visualizing the Law” encouraging lawyers to add images to their legal briefs. If lawyers can make their writing more fun with pictures, so can you.
9. Read the work of clear writers.
Reading may be the best way to learn how to write. Need a recommendation? Try this article by Paul Kalanithi, who was a 36-year-old neurosurgeon/cancer patient with a passion for the written word.****
Clarity Is Key
Whether you're writing an epic fantasy novel or an email to your boss, it's vital that the reader understand your meaning. Tighten your writing wherever possible to make it crystal clear.
How do you tighten up your writing? Let us know in the comments.
PRACTICE
Below is a real-life email I received at some point in my life. It’s so confusing!
Take fifteen minutes to edit the email so that it makes sense.
“We need to let Facilities know which ‘cube groupings’ want to receive the privacy panel extensions. A cube grouping is defined as the grouping of 8 cubes clustered together, of which we have four. Then, our one standalone row of four cubes will also be a cube grouping. Before COB, please have one person from each cube grouping send in the cube grouping’s preference to me via email, so I can run our preferences by the recently resurrected Cube Committee, before we submit our requests to Facilities.”
Share your edited email in the comments below, and be sure to leave feedback for your fellow writers!
* Unfortunately, I now feel an incredible amount of pressure to make this the clearest post I’ve ever written.
** Also, I have discovered that when my writing really needs that word or sentence, it returns. Knowing that helps get over the fear of deleting something vital.
*** It’s not that I’m recommending that you break all the rules in footnotes, but better to do so here than up there!
**** I was introduced to Kalanithi via this article. Based solely on his writing ability (as opposed to the topic), I bought “When Breath Becomes Air,” his philosophical memoir about facing death as a doctor and patient. Heavy, huh? I read it in two days because his writing was so darn clear.
I loved this article. I am, however, confused about footnotes and how it applies to stories of fiction. Keep up the great work.
It doesn’t, sadly. But it can be useful in essays, blog posts, memos, and other types of works!
I would use it as a way to get those thoughts out of my head and then go back to in case I felt information was missing, but they would be for me, not the reader.
Good point! When I was writing this post, I originally had even more footnotes, if you can imagine. The ones I deleted served exactly that purpose- I went back to them later, and then realized the information didn’t add anything.
Check out Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s “Good Omens” for creative use of footnotes in fiction.
Terry Pratchett’s last novel, “The Shepherd’s Crown”, as an e-book, has endnotes.
After I finish writing I always try and run my text through hemingwayapp.com. It is a great software which identifies complex and unnecessary words. I may not always change my writing, but it makes me have to justify what I write.
A good point Monica, about clear writing.
Our Literature teacher insisted on avoiding the over use of what she called ‘flowery adjectives’. She said to aim for style and simplicity, amongst other rules for grammar and punctuation. My writing is simple but I’m always striving for ‘style’.
Oh, that e-mail is a challenge! Assuming I do have the gist of it, here’s my translation:
We need to let Facilities know if our cube grouping needs privacy panels. Normally a ‘cube grouping’ is a cluster of eight cubes; since we have only four, this will qualify as our grouping.
Please have one person from this group e-mail the group’s preferences to me ASAP so I can submit our request to the new Cube Committee for their input before we send our request to Facilities.
Oh, now I understand what she was trying to say! 🙂
Christine,
I think your edit is a bit clearer than mine. I especially liked the summing up of your last line. Am I correct in assuming that you have defogged brain? I so like your clarity of thought and its brevity.
Thank you. My thinking seems pretty foggy sometimes, but when I get it down on the page I generally prefer “the less said the better.”
,Here is my edited e-mail. Do I understand the original correctly?
Good news! Our cube groupings will receive privacy panel extensions. Before facilities can make the changes the COB must forward each cube groupings preferences. A grouping consists of eight cubes. There are four groupings of eight cubes. There is one stand alone group of four cubes which will also be consideed a grouping. Each grouping should select one person from their group to e-mail me regarding the group’s privacy extension preferences. I will run those preferences by the resurrected Cube Committee before those preferences are forwarded to facilities.
Definitely better than the original! If I were editing the e-mail above, I would have tried to find something to replace the word “grouping.” I found the word itself confusing. Perhaps sections? Groups of 8? “Your row of four, and the row directly across from yours”? I don’t know!
I agree with that: I’d replace groupings with groups if I knew it would have been understood.
Just a note: COB means Close of Business, so in this context, one person from each cube group should send the group’s preference by close of business.
Great article, Monica, and I agree 100% with it! Thanks for the advice!
I’m quite out of it. Can’t catch on to stuff like this! Is my age showing?
I read……therefore I wrote… After this cozy mystery writer OD’d me on adjectives, I posted a blog article giving an example of “way too many adjectives” and encouraging terseness. And the feedback comments gave me some more insights into the matter.
Some people supported my thoughts, while others said they like a lot of description as a way of setting the scene. I feel any descriptive details used in “tense” stories should build the setting, not just be thrown in for color and pertain to nothing.
Then lately I read another novel and the writer used just as many adjectives, but it worked well. The difference was the pace. In a mystery you need the action to MOVE. You don’t care if the carpet, well worn along the major traffic areas, has a pattern of faded dusty pink roses and leaves of faded jade green. Unless the carpet color figures into the mystery, having a dark red splotch that stands out in sharp contrast.
The second book was a Beatrix Potter Cottage Story. Beatrix at home with friends and neighbors in the lovely little hamlet of XXX where details of the town and surrounding countryside create and blend into the relaxed atmosphere.
Agreed! It’s a balancing act.
We need to let the Facilities know which cube groupings wants to receive privacy panel extensions. We have 8 cubes grouped together, of which we have four (32) Please have a person from each grouping send in their preference to me via email, I will run them by the Cube Committee before our requests is submitted.
Very to-the-point. Though in the second sentence, saying we have four groups, eight cubes each, plus one group of four cubes might be clearer. I see you left off the “new” or “newly resurrected” part Committee. I debated that, too. Really, its newness only becomes relative if the memo recipients are unaware of its existence.
Thanks Christine, i really had trouble making sense of it.
“Facilities has requested privacy panel extensions for the cube groupings. There are 4 groups of 8 cubes and 1 standalone group of 4. Have a designated person from each group email me their preference before the COB. I’ll have the resurrected Cube Committee review it before submitting.”
I usually write the first awful draft without editing. Then I put the manuscript away for a few weeks and work on something else. When I take up the original story it’s new and fresh to my eyes, so I can quite easily see where I need to cut the excess words and/or phrases. Sometimes I go through this process several times, or until I’m happy with the result.
Another thought: Cheers for #5. Long live white space!
If I click on a blog post and find an article with a number of long paragraphs (over eight lines) I don’t even start. Like “green eggs and ham” it’s visually off-putting no matter how well the subject is covered.
Facilities needs to know which “cube groupings” want the privacy panel extensions. A cube grouping is made of 8 cubes clustered together. We have four of them. Also our standalone row of four cubes forme a cube grouping. So they are five in total.
Can you ask for one person from each cube grouping to send me an email with their preferences?
Before I can send them to Facilities, I must run the requests by the recently resurrected Cube Committee.
So I need to receive the emails from all cube grouping before the COB.
I agree, and, I appreciate this article so much. I like to try ,and, sound intellectual, but, it isn’t always necessary. Thank you.
Facilities needs to know which ‘cube groupings’, groupings of 8 cubes clustered together, would like to receive the privacy panel extensions. There are four groups of 8 and also one group of 4 cubes, set in a row, that will still be considered a ‘cube grouping’.
One person from each cube grouping must email me their preference of the privacy panel extensions before COB commences. I will allow the Cube Committee to review our preferences before officially submitting them to Facilities.
Thank you for your time.
Well written. I have shared this post on my FB page and Twitter. Thank you for sharing these useful tips.
Writing flash fiction helps me tighten writing.
Here is my edited version of the email.
In order to submit our request for privacy panel extensions, we need to let facilities know which cube groupings (a group of eight cubes clustered together), of the four we have, want to be included. Please have a representative of each grouping send in that group’s preference to me via email. Once I receive this information, I will run our preferences by the Cube Committee, then submit them to Facilities.