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Chapter Overview
Chapter 1: What’s in it for me? Get your message across with clear and concise communication.
Chapter 2: There is an abundance of bad writing on the internet, but good, clear writing can be learned.
Chapter 3: It’s helpful to be aware of traditional writing structures and readability indexes, but don’t be over-reliant on them.
Chapter 4: Avoid front-loading your sentences and overusing the passive voice.
Chapter 5: Interrogate your sentences and remove unnecessary words like adverbs and parasitical prepositions.
Chapter 6: Clear writing avoids overusing not’s and engages the reader by resisting the trap of dry, mechanical language.
Chapter 7: Beware of zombie nouns, verbose flesh-eaters and stale expressions.
Chapter 8: As long as we care about meaning, good writing is a powerful antidote to a post-truth society.
Chapter 9: Politicians and banks use bad writing to make money and push forward harmful policies.
Description
Do I Make Myself Clear? (2017) offers a much-needed look at why clear and concise messages are, now more than ever, so important. There is an overwhelming abundance of content these days, and yet finding the truth has never been more difficult. Politicians and marketing executives use deliberately misleading words that obscure the truth and leave us confused and distrustful. Other times, bad writing simply leaves us scratching our heads. If we hope to better understand the facts, we need more people who can deliver clear and meaningful writing.
Who Should Listen
- Aspiring writers
- Students hoping to craft better papers
- Readers tired of bad writing