90: Harvard Professor Todd Rogers | Getting People To Respond to What We Write

Less is more. Be brief if we want people to read what we write. People skim, and 99% of people are more likely to read short text compared to long text. Plus, brevity is kinder to the reader.

Design for how people read. We read headers, we jump around, we go as fast as possible. So, use headers, bold words, and bullet points to make it easy for people to get main ideas quickly.

To write so people read what we write, use the AI model which has been trained on Todd’s principles. Run your text through his model at www.writingforbusyreaders.com.

Think addition by subtraction. We improve our writing by subtracting unnecessary words and sentences rather than adding more.

Readers are skittish. If you use big, uncommon words, they may run away and never come back.

Subtraction neglect: ask people to improve something, and the vast majority of the time they will add things. People too often fail to think that they can improve by removing and subtracting.