We all have to write, no matter how advanced the world gets. In fact, our digital reality essentially means we are probably writing more than ever, even if it is in smaller chunks. Writing well isn’t that difficult if you follow the 3 Cs – Clarity, Conciseness and Consistency.
Here are some tips for achieving the 3 Cs.
Clarity – Put yourself in your readers’ shoes. You know everything there is to know about your subject. Most likely you're writing for readers who know a lot less. Don’t make assumptions of preexisting knowledge. Be clear in explaining your topic. Don’t use obscure acronyms that are the professional equivalent of in-jokes. Explain jargon. Keep it as simple as possible. Imagine you are explaining your subject to your grandmother…
Conciseness – Keeping your sentences short and to the point will force you to hone in on what’s important. Avoid run on sentences. Here’s a top tip – look for the “ands” that are not part of a list. Delete them and replace them with a period. You now have two shorter and clearer sentences. Your conciseness will now go a long way towards increasing your clarity. An example? If I was being long-winded, I would have written the previous 2 sentences in one (You now have two shorter and clearer sentences, and your conciseness will now go a long way towards increasing your clarity.) A rule of thumb: one sentence, one idea.
Consistency – When you keep changing terms within a document, even if YOU know it means the same thing, it can be very confusing for your readers. It’s always tempting to keep your text colorful by using a thesaurus and changing it up. This is great for adjectives – intelligent/knowledgeable/wise/smart – everyone knows what those mean. But when you’re using technical terms or industry jargon, synonyms will not always be your friend when it comes to being fully understood. Use of attacker/threat actor/hacker in a cyber security text could confuse a reader who isn’t fully up on all these terms and their interchangeability.
Parting tip – reread your texts to make sure they make sense to you and edit yourself. Don’t fall in love with what you’ve written – leave your writing ego at the door. Then have someone else read your text and give you feedback. This will be your test of clarity (and will often reveal a few typos).
