Review of “Writing to Be Understood” by Anne H. Janzer

I’ve been doing a lot more writing than I had in the past, so I thought this book would be a great book to read. This book had a lot of good information about different ways to communicate to help readers stay interested in your writing and keep them reading until the end. There was also some great advice about how to help the reader feel like you’re having a conversation with them personally.

There were three parts to the book:

1. Understanding Your Reader
2. How to Explain Complicated Ideas
3. How to Not Be Boring

Some of the key takeaways I got from the book were:

Know How Much To Share

I definitely try to do this in my writing, but it can be difficult because you don’t know who will read what you’re writing. Limiting jargon and providing more background information may be important if you are writing for someone with little to no knowledge of the topic. But, if you’re writing to peers, for instance, you can get to the main points more quickly without a lot of background details.

The Effectiveness of Repetition

This rule is better applied to longer works, but repeating your main point three times can greatly help retention. One trick for using repetition effectively without causing boredom is to switch up how you word the information. So you’re repeating without sounding like you’re repeating.

Use Stories

I can see how using stories can impact what you’re writing, but I have had a hard time doing it. I recently read The Money Tree by Chris Guillebeau. Chris took the concept of storytelling to the max by using a fictional story to get across his non-fictional points. I really enjoyed this book as the story had me interested right from the beginning and helped illustrate the author's points.

In most non-fiction writing, you will use short stories and anecdotes to get specific points across that may otherwise be difficult to understand. Stories can also help make your content more memorable as it’s easier to remember a story than specific data.

Humor Can Keep Them Reading

How do you sound naturally funny in your writing? This concept is easy to understand but not so easy to pull off. Whether or not you can get away with using humor in your writing may depend upon your audience. Some audiences will be more receptive to humor than others.

One of the keys to good humor I’ve noticed lately is that if the reader figures out a joke's punchline before they read it, it helps them feel more connected to the writer because they were both thinking the same thing. I have also noticed this when watching TV commercials. If there is a punchline in a commercial I’m watching for the first time, and I figure it out before it’s delivered, I think it’s even funnier because it’s the line I would have used.

Some key quotes from the book:

• “…the end goal is to be understood…”
• “…you must understand the reader's needs and context…”
• “When it comes to identifying a target audience: everyone is no one.”
• “The most effective writers don’t simply explain things — they make their ideas memorable.”
• “The number one attribute of good writers is being willing to delete.”
• “Engaging the reader’s curiosity ‘sweet spot’ requires a balance of the known and unknown.”
• “Stories put complex ideas into a human scale.”
• “…people remember stories, not data.”
• “Be concise.”

Conclusion

In addition to the author's thoughts about writing effectively, she included information from interviews with many other writers. These details provided more perspectives and supporting details for the content in the book.

I learned a lot from this book and hope to apply many of its concepts to my own writing.