Found 11 topics tagged ‘Writing for Clarity’

The curse of knowledge is a cognitive bias that leads us to overestimate the knowledge of our audience. If you allow this curse to infect your writing, you may unwittingly leave supporters feeling confused an alienated. To...

Here’s an important piece of digital communication that you’ve probably never read: Few of us pay attention to stuff like this. And not because it doesn’t contain important information. It does. You’ve probably never...

The education system taught many of us that long words and complex sentence structures are signs of sophistication. Un-learn this as fast as you can! Convoluted language won’t win you any friends in the real world...

Knowing how much or how little to say starts with being clear about your objective. Rarely is it our job to turn readers into subject-matter experts. Mostly, we’re in the business of motivating people to action. If...

Take your time. In the pursuit of saying more with less, I’ll admit—not every big idea can be reduced to a snappy soundbite. Sometimes there really is a lot to say. Still, there are better options than trying...

Quick read

Whether your call to action (CTA) is a button or a link, don’t get too clever. Speak directly to your supporter and tell them exactly what you want them to do. In our tests, this always increases...