Day 1370 - Jun.30.22 - Write simply

Layman’s terms. That’s how you need to write. Simple words. Simple concepts simply explained. Imagine you were explaining it to your high school self. Knowing what he knows, would he understand your writing? That’s who you should be writing to. Write to understand, not to impress. Too much academic, business and institutional writing is unnecessarily technical and full of jargon. No wonder no one reads that stuff. No one has time. You need to write in a way a teenager would understand. That’s how you’re becoming a good writer and communicator. Got that compliment from a family friend today when he said ‘what I appreciate about talking to you is you take difficult concepts and put it in layman’s terms. But I know how much work it ook you to understand those concepts.’ People know. When you explain a concept simply, it means you really understand it. That’s a secret to evaluating if people really know something. Ask them to explain it like you’re a teenager with no background knowledge. Do that for others. Learn and understand difficult concepts to teach it to people in simple terms. Get better at writing simply. Become a better editor by cutting out unnecessary words. Cut the jargon. Cut the bullshit. Cut the fluff. You don’t need to prove your vocabulary or intellect to anyone. The way you do is by writing simply. By writing in layman’s terms.

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