If you are an avid reader like me, one is often confronted by copy, which although compelling, is so complicated and academic that it challenges your patience. And then, if you persist, you realise that the author could easily have simplified the subject matter.
After having edited some academic documents, and shortened it by almost 70%, I was congratulated by the author on the effectiveness of my edit. I then asked about why he used such difficult language? “It is the way of us academics,” he replied. Be that as it may, if one wants readers of all to access your writing, you have to simplify it.
Research has shown that people don’t read anymore. With the event of computers and the internet, people have become scanners. Copy has to be short, to the point and engage the emotion of the reader or you will lose them before they have completed the first paragraph.
Mike Tooley suggests the following methodology: “One should aim for clarity, simplicity and intelligibility. One way is to always consider how a secondary school student, who knows nothing about the topic, would experience the essay/article. Will he/she read the copy without difficulty? And then, having read it, would they be able to present it comprehensively for others to understand? If you can say yes to both these questions, then all is well. If not, you need to rewrite the essay/article in a simpler and more straightforward way. “
Me - I write words and pictures from heart to heart – it is my unconscious conscious intention.
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