I love writing that’s simple to read.
In his blog post on Overwriting, Seth Godin writes, “The articles and books that stand the test of time are straightforward.”
Sure, writing that’s difficult to read — so often in academic journals or industry-specific reports — creates a filter. Only the people who “deserve” to understand will toil through the jargon and run-on sentences.
And then we wonder why most people don’t care about “the bigger things”. We wonder why they don’t bother to “inform themselves”.
Writing that’s difficult to read is like preaching to the choir. Only the people who are already converted will bother reading it.
My main rule for writing, or any other kind of content, is to think about audience and purpose.
Who is it for? And what do you want to achieve?
Only then can you tailor your message, style and medium accordingly.
But no matter if one is a subject matter expert or completely new to the topic, I’m pretty sure writing that’s simple will be appreciated.
We are all busy. Rather than spend an hour figuring out what’s being said, we can read, understand, digest quickly. Then we could use our time in better ways.
