Tag Archives: new ideas

How to introduce a new idea to readers

Plain language / Plain English, writing tip,

Prefer clarity over elegance.

Some writers like to find different words to express the same idea because they think it is stylistically more elegant.

Consistency, even if it involves an amount of repetition, can help your readers understand a new idea or product.

When you talk about a thing in a document, give it the same name or description every time you refer to it.

For example, describing something as a system, then calling it a process, then a component, then an enterprise, then a project can be confusing.

Likewise, calling a product, perhaps, XFire2, then X2, then FireSmart, can also confuse your readers.

You may know they are the same thing, but your readers may not, and they could be wondering about distinctions that don’t exist.

Wild words

Plain language / Plain English, Thinking & writing, ,

Words ought to be a little wild, for they are the assault of thought on the unthinking. (J.M. Keynes)

A lot of the time when writing in a business and government context we are not wild. We write to control and maintain good governance.

But there are times when we don’t need polite exchange but rather we need a spark, a provocation, a way to jolt the mind from the comfortable silence of the status quo. There are times when we need to change thinking, or introduce a new direction.

We don’t want words to be mere placeholders, echoes of what has already been said. Sometimes our writing needs to be sharp, unexpected, even disruptive so that we can help our readers see the world in a new way.

Strong ideas often require wild words to fight against complacency and against the quiet surrender of thought.