Photo by ponanwi (CC on Flickr)

When you blog and people link to your site your blogging software lets you know. So you can go and check out what people are saying. You might not always like what you find of course….

A while back on this site I fired off a quick little piece about writing how you talk. It got picked up by StumbleUpon and brought in thousands of visitors. It is far-and-away the most popular article that’s appeared on this site.

However, from the start it has generated a lot of misunderstanding. (It must be the way I wrote it. The fault is all mine.)

One of the latest links to the site is from someone who appears to be rethinking their education based on what I wrote. This has alarmed me, to say the list.

I was going to link to the page but have decided not to, to respect their privacy. (Yes, I know that sounds daft when they published something on the web, but it’s not really on a blog. It seems to be more of a ‘keep track of your thoughts’ kind of site).But this is what the person says:

So, I’ve decided not to pursue a minor in English. I guess somewhere along the line, I lost my interest and I feel that it really isn’t my thing. I mean, I can speak it just fine, so people tell me, but I figure once I have the minor, I’ll not have a use for it. Well, I’m decided in not pursuing, so I won’t be taking advanced composition next semester or any other English class for that matter. Anyway, here’s a nice little article I found on the web. It’s really one of those ‘what you were taught in grade school was all wrong’ kinds of pieces, but I found it interesting. (Here they link back to my original article).

Let’s get something straight here. I’m not saying that you don’t need a formal education in order to be a good writer. I’m not saying that everything you learnt in school about writing is wrong. (It’s also not the English classes that are to blame. It’s the history essays, the French essays, the science reports). Continue reading →

Being concise is an art in itself.

Keep sentences short so they can be easily understood. Write only what is needed. If there are excess words, hack, prune and tear them out. Leave room for some colourful language to add interest and style. But kill the fluff.

Then, when have it just right, when it’s perfect, go back and edit out ten per cent of the word count.

Communication is all about the right mindset. And that means embracing the idea that there’s no such thing as a failure of understanding, only a failure to communicate effectively.

Of course, this may not always be totally true in all circumstances. But as a general rule of thumb for communicators of all kinds, it works just fine.

If you’re writing, explaining something, teaching, then you need to make sure that you get the message across in a way that your audience can understand. If they don’t get it, it’s your fault, not theirs.

This is true when talking to a stranger at a party or addressing a hall full of people.

It’s something most copywriters would understand instinctively (or at least, you’ld hope they would). It’s something most effective communicators would never really need to be told. It’s probably second nature to them.

But it’s also true that huge numbers of people just don’t get this. Those people who write instructions for mobile phones, perhaps.
The arrogant guy in the bar pontificating at people who are too slow to follow his argument. The impatient business exec sniping at the temp who’s had no training.

The IT guy who doesn’t explain how to use his software, or even why, just gives you a list of changes made since the last version.
The bottom line is that if you want to communicate then the onus is on you to get it right. Make an effort to explain, rather than expecting people to understand.

This is especially true in mass communications, be it journalism, writing a blog or creating your own marketing materials. It’s so much better for one person to make the effort to explain things clearly than for dozens, hundreds, thousands to have to wade though poorly written copy. Especially as they can always stop reading, and move on.