How to Be Awesome at Your Job

916: Six Principles for Writing to Busy Readers with Todd Rogers

Nov 16, 2023

Todd Rogers, Co-author of Writing for Busy Readers, and Professor of Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School, discusses principles for capturing the attention of busy readers. Topics include: improving your writing by asking critical questions, the trick to getting people to respond, creating associations to counter attack ads, writing concisely and making content skimmable, the importance of being excellent at your job, and effective editing tools for busy writers.

42:56

Episode guests

Todd Rogers

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Quick takeaways

Simplifying writing by using short words, common words, and simple sentences increases engagement with busy readers.

Applying formatting techniques like headings and short sentences greatly improves the readability and navigation of written material.

Deep dives

Principles for Writing to Busy Readers

The podcast episode discusses Todd Rogers' principles for writing to busy readers. Todd shares valuable insights on writing impactfully to busy readers so that they will actually read, understand, and respond. He highlights the importance of making reading easy by using short words, common words, and simple sentences. He explains the power of using headings and formatting for easy navigation and skimming. Todd also emphasizes the significance of telling readers why they should care and making responding easy. These principles focus on simplifying the writing process and making it easier for readers to engage with the content.

Responding to Attack Ads in Political Campaigns

01:51

Introduction

2min

Collaborating with a Social Psychologist and Behavioral Scientist

2min

Creating a Different Association to Respond to Attack Ads

2min

Writing for Busy Readers: Less is More

25min

The Importance of Being Awesome at Your Job

9min

Writing for Busy Readers and Effective Editing

2min

Todd Rogers shares powerful writing principles to help capture your busy audience’s attention.

— YOU’LL LEARN —

1) Why people aren’t reading—and what to do about it

2) The critical question that will improve your writing

3) The simple trick to get people to respond to your request

Subscribe or visit AwesomeAtYourJob.com/ep916 for clickable versions of the links below.

— ABOUT TODD —

Todd Rogers is co-author of Writing for Busy Readers, and Professor of Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He is the faculty director of the Behavioral Insights Group, faculty chair of the executive education program Behavioral Insights and Public Policy, Senior Scientist at ideas42, and Academic Advisor at the Behavioral Insights Team.

Todd co-founded the Analyst Institute, which improves voter communications, and serves on its board. He also co-founded EveryDay Labs, which partners with school districts to reduce student absenteeism by communicating with families, is an equity holder and serves as Chief Scientist. Todd received his Ph.D. jointly from Harvard's department of Psychology and the Harvard Business School.

• Book: Writing for Busy Readers: Communicate More Effectively in the Real World, with Jessica Lasky-Fink

• Study: “Poison Parasite Counter: Turning Duplicitous Mass Communications Into Self-Negating Memory-Retrieval Cues” with Robert B. Cialdini et al.

• Website: WritingForBusyReaders.com

• Tool: AI email editing

• Tool: Writing checklist

— RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THE SHOW —

• Study: “People systematically overlook subtractive changes” by Gabrielle S. Adams, et al.

• Term: Butterfly ballot

• Book: Pre-Suasion: Channeling Attention for Change by Robert Cialdini

• Book: Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini

• Book: Give Your Speech, Change the World: How To Move Your Audience to Action by Nick Morgan

• Book: Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything by BJ Fogg