Tips for Writers Who Want to Write Clearly
September 14, 2017| Category: Writing Tips
All writers should know one thing. When they are writing, it is important not to miss one thing. It is clarity. You probably want to know what it means. It means that you need to make your writing easy to understand for the reader. Because otherwise, it will not have any value. In addition, if you are able to write clearly and intelligently, your readers will find it interesting and useful. Besides, they will want to continue reading it, which is good for you.
But do you know how you can make your content crystal clear for your readers? There are the ways you can do this! Just use the extra useful methods described in this article. It will help you get started and in case you use them properly, they will make your writing much better – you will see!
1) Know what you are going to say. Clarity is not a simple thing. To comprehend it, you need to get a completely new way of thinking. Due to that, you will have to think of everything you are going to write before putting the words down on the page. So before you even begin writing, you need to consider such things as:
- Your subject: for instance, I am writing a blog post about the ways you may use to make your writing clearer
- Your point: in this article, I intend to tell you how to write clearly
- Your outline: this article has 5 main points
There is an important thing that needs to be added here. To make your writing clearer, you do not have to go out of your way and explain absolutely everything to your reader. Sometimes, it can even make your content much less understandable. So, it is better to keep your article (or whatever you write) shorter and know precisely what you want to convey to your reader and how you can do it.
2) Know your audience. It is essential to know who you are writing for. Only in this case, you will make your writing clear and useful for your reader. So the more you know and understand about your audience, the clearer your writing will be. Of course, there are some tips that can help you whatever your audience is. First of all, it is useful to think about your readers as of 5-year-old kids. Remember that thinking this way and writing like you would talk to a child will not insult their intellect and will not offend them. It will only help them follow your idea better.
Secondly, when you have to utilize advanced concepts and more difficult words, you need to know that your audience is familiar with them. Because otherwise you will confuse them a lot.
Thirdly, while writing, keep on thinking over the ways you can help your reader understand every idea better. If you do, there will be no problem with that in your content! Also, remember that people that read your content want to understand what you are attempting to say. So the clearer you write, the more effortless it is for them.
3) Give definitions to unfamiliar words. If you are using any terms in your writing, it is indispensable to explain them. Explain even those that seem to be obvious to you, especially if understanding them is essential for grasping your message. Remember what I did in the beginning of this article? I explained the word clarity to you. I did not just assume that you already knew the definition of this word. What if you did not know it and did not have the definition to read here? You could have misunderstood the whole idea of my writing! You would not have found anything useful for your development as a writer. To avoid that, I simply explained it right away. Do this in a similar way. It will not take a lot of your time to give a simple definition to the terms you use. But it will significantly improve your article and will make it much more understandable to your reader. So, it is certainly worth it!
4) Make up a sentence outline. You might ask what this means and how you can do this. Easy! To make up a sentence outline, you need to create an outline of your content by utilizing complete sentences. In case you make it up with single words or phrases, it will not be clear. Therefore, it is better to write complete sentences to make yourself think about everything you want to say and help your audience better comprehend what you want to tell them in every point of your writing.
5) Master your clarity. Remember that it is especially important to keep your writing clear today, since we live in the world saturated with content. It makes your content stand out against others. However, as with any other activity, you may become perfect only with time and proper effort. So, keep on mastering your clarity. It is great if you attain the mastery of clear writing at first or second attempt. But if it takes more time, it is totally okay. If you work on it, you will certainly attain this goal and will make your writing clear, mind-changing, bright, and encouraging. So, just keep on practicing!