How to Write Clearly
Edward T. Thompson · 1980
"Clear writing is a product of outlining before you write, knowing exactly how much your reader already knows, and ruthlessly cutting anything that shows off instead of explains."
Edward T. Thompson, then editor-in-chief of Reader's Digest, reduced nineteen years of editing down to five rules that cover almost every clarity problem a writer runs into.
Outline first — on index cards, one point per card, grouped and sequenced before a word of prose gets written. Start exactly where your readers are, not a level above or below their actual knowledge. Avoid jargon: a scientist who wrote 'the biota exhibited a one hundred percent mortality response' meant 'all the fish died.' Use familiar combinations of words rather than inflated ones — a Roosevelt speechwriter changed 'We are endeavoring to construct a more inclusive society' to 'We're going to make a country in which no one is left out.' And use 'first-degree' words — ones that bring an image to mind immediately, without needing to be mentally translated first.
In Edward T. Thompson's example, what did the scientist's line 'the biota exhibited a one hundred percent mortality response' actually mean?
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- How to Write ClearlyHouse overview (The Printed Word)
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