Writing for real people
Why do plain language writers emphasize audience research?
They do this because once you know who your readers are, you make choices
that will make reading easier for them. You make these choices in grammar,
vocabulary, and design.
Conversational words
Choose everyday, familiar words in their
conversational meanings. Even Aristotle advised writers to use words that
are current and ordinary. Use words that explain rather than mask meaning:
end, stop, finish, or close instead of terminate.
Agree or comply instead of accede to. In trying to
be conversational, don't also try to be trendy and hip. Not everyone follows
trends. Remember such slang is an in-language for a certain group of people.
Unless that group is your only audience, don't use slang. Don't use proactive
or paradigm shift, and don't touch base or interface
to optimize the impact.
Jargon
When you know who you are writing for, you can decide
how much jargon is OK. An article about court processes for lawyers might
use "list" without further explanation but for the public you would want
to indicate that "the family list" is the daily schedule for family court
hearings. Would your grandmother be upset by a letter from her lawyer
saying, "Your will is now ready, please come in for execution"? Don't
use words like stem turns, gender segmentation, functional parameters
or marginal cost-pricing unless you're talking to experts in that
jargon area.
If you must use some specialized language,
give definitions. You can do so unobtrusively. For example, "If you have
reasonable grounds (meaning you have good reason) to believe that..."
or "In economics, arbitrage is the practice of..." Sometimes you need
to introduce the readers to terms they will come across in the court system
or other institution: "Collusion is when you agree to deceive the court."
Figures of speech
Most writing style guides tell you to make
use of analogies, metaphors, similes, and other figures of speech to give
your writing life and colour. A problem arises when these reflect cultural
experiences that are not common to all your readers. When the movie Like
Water for Chocolate was released, most of us required an explanation
of the simile. When an information pamphlet for Asian senior citizens
on tobacco consumption made a play on the title Sex, Lies and Videotape,
none of the target audience had a hint what the joke was about in the
title Smoke, Lies and Videotape.
Cross-cultural issues
The first problem in inter-cultural communication is words
that are not known to others. "Don't go off without your toque" will make
no sense to a child recently immigrated from Australia. Even simple words
may not be understood by people who haven't experienced certain historic
events or cultural activities. Consider the wisdom of using the phrase
"buried under an avalanche of paper" when writing to someone from Southern
India (lacking our experience with mountains of snow).
The second problem is words that carry a
different meaning in Canada or in your field of endeavour. For example,
the word demise carries all of these meanings: death, lease,
convey, transfer, rent, grant and bequeath. And of course some
words (contranyms) carry contradictory meanings within themselves which
you may have never considered: sanction can indicate either approval
or censure.
Brevity and simplicity
Nowadays people are in a hurry. They won't take the time
to search a lengthy document for its essential message. Readers scan a
long document to decide whether it has relevance to them. If the headings
or graphics don't shout READ ME, the document
will be dropped. In order to get read, documents must look interesting,
relevant, brief, and easy. Don't go so far with brevity that the document
fails to communicate its message, but don't go on any longer than you
must. Resist any urge to convert Pope's phrase,
"To err is human, to forgive divine"
to
"To err, whether willfully or through carelessness, is human, whereas,
however, to forgive is divine or an approximation thereof".
In addition to keeping the writing clear
and succinct, you can use physical space to make the document look simple.
This involves design features like headings, visual features like graphics
and charts, and comfort factors like adequate white space and large-enough
type faces.
Get real: Be clear
Today's readers are not the same as they were years ago.
The audience is more diverse and individuals have less time and patience
for gobbledygook and unnecessary complexity. And, you must expect that
your audience has different needs and expectations than you do. Watch
the way you write and seek the common good: clear, easy, readable writing.
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