110. Write It Well: How to Craft an Email to Capture Busy Readers
Oct 10, 2023
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Todd Rogers, a Harvard Kennedy School professor and author of 'Writing for Busy Readers,' shares insights on crafting effective communication. He emphasizes that busy readers require clarity and brevity in everything from emails to speeches. Tips include using simple language, structure, and bullet points to enhance readability. The conversation also highlights how emojis can engage diverse audiences and the importance of adapting writing to fit communication norms for improved understanding. With Rogers’ strategies, you can write in a way that respects your readers' time.
Writing effectively for busy readers saves them time and allows easy navigation of information by focusing on their needs.
Designing content with structure and conciseness enhances readability and accommodates the skimming behavior of busy readers.
Deep dives
The Importance of Writing Effectively for Busy Readers
Writing effectively for busy readers is important because it saves them time and allows them to quickly navigate the information. By focusing on the reader's needs, writers can make their content more accessible and accommodating to the skimming behavior of busy readers. Emphasizing structure and adding headings can help readers jump around and grasp the key points easily. Additionally, writing concisely and using simple language enhances readability and ensures that the message is understood by a wider audience.
The Shift from Writing Well to Writing Effectively
Writing effectively differs from writing well, and it requires understanding how people actually read. Recognizing that readers tend to skim rather than read linearly, writers should design their content for easy navigation. By incorporating structure, such as headings and key points at the beginning, readers can quickly grasp the main ideas. It is essential to write in a way that reflects the reality of skimming behavior, ensuring that important information is easily accessible to busy readers.
Key Principles for Writing for Busy Readers: Less is More and Make Reading Easy
Two key principles for writing for busy readers are 'less is more' and 'make reading easy.' 'Less is more' refers to the idea that removing unnecessary words and ideas actually makes the content more effective. Research has shown that shorter messages with fewer paragraphs can be more successful in engaging readers. Making reading easy involves using short sentences, common words, and simple grammar. This approach reduces cognitive effort, makes the content more pleasant to read, and increases its accessibility to a broader audience.
Whatever you’re writing, Todd Rogers says most people are too busy to read it. That’s why, he says, “you want to make it as easy as possible for them."
Rogers is a professor of public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and the author of the book Writing for Busy Readers: Communicate More Effectively in the Real World. From text messages to fundraising letters to political speeches, Rogers says effective writing makes it “easy for busy readers to navigate what we send them, pull out the key information, and do what they are planning to do anyway, which is move on to the next thing.” This kind of writing, Rogers says, is “more effective for us, and kinder to readers.”
In this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart, Rogers and host Matt Abrahams explore how to use structure, simplicity, and everyday vocabulary to write in a way that saves readers time and transmits ideas more effectively.