Everybody must learn how to write clearly, or suffer the consequences of being misunderstood. What is clear to you, may not be clear to the reader. As the communicator, it is your job to bridge this gap - this book explains how.

Think of your work as a never-ending process. You can share your process in a way that attracts others.

Clarity is measured in the reader’s understanding. Being clear means being clear to your reader in context.

The harder you work on your writing, the easier it is for your reader to read and understand it.

What it means to get clear on your reader

A huge part of writing clearly is understanding your reader. That doesn’t mean you have to understand everything about them, or go as deep as building a persona. But you must understand:

• The frame of mind they will be in when they come across your writing

• What you want them to think when they read your writing

• How you want them to be different / what you want them to do/ know after reading

Before you can write for your reader, you need to know who they are, what they want and what they already know.

On a recent brief to write a LinkedIn post I asked

• What’s the main thing we need the reader to learn after this post

• What do they already know about the author of the post

• What do we want them to think about the author after this post Here’s a real life example of me summarising my understanding of the target audience for a LinkedIn post I was asked to write, and me getting very clear on the intended outcome of the post.

To write well for your reader, you have to research them. Here’s a handy list of questions to consider when researching them:

• What words or phrases does your reader use to talk about the topics you’ll be discussing?

• What are the knowledge gaps you’ll have to fill with your writing?

• What questions do they already have about the topics?

• What are their priorities / top concerns?

• What are the misconceptions you’ll need to correct with your writing?