Dear Friend,
Hope you had a relaxing/exciting holiday weekend, according
to your preference.
Tony and I kicked back in front of the grill all day
Sunday—literally. We started barbecuing a huge rack of ribs shortly before 5:00
p.m. And we finally pulled them off at midnight, with disappointing results.
Back to the drawing board.
If you’re a grillmaster who knows the secret behind
mouthwatering, fall-off-the-bone spareribs, please share your
recipes and
techniques.
My only request: keep it simple.
As much as I enjoy cooking, I don’t always appreciate the
science behind culinary chemistry.
And that’s the subject of this month’s e-zine: How do you
write complicated ideas in a way that everyone can understand?
Enjoy!
M.
Does your writing pass the ‘Mom
test’?
We all have our areas of expertise. As varied as our
specialties may be, they have one thing in common: they’re more complex than
other people realize.
What does this thought have to do with writing?
Plenty.
Once we start talking about our pet passion or our
profession—may they be one and the same—we tend to lapse into lingo. We
naturally use the acronyms and other verbal shortcuts that simplify
communication among the initiated.
Simplified communication. Concise. Brief. More effective,
right?
Only when we’re talking to others who speak the same
language.
Sometimes prospective clients don’t fall in this category.
Consider the legal and accounting professions. Most of us
hire these experts because we know little or nothing about state laws and tax
codes—and frankly, we like it that way.
How about the increasingly popular VoIP telephone service?
My 82-year-old neighbor doesn’t care how it works; she just wants to save money
on her phone bill.
This last example shows the basic problem: When we’re
talking—or writing—about something that we know a lot about, details bog us
down. We go on about the intricacies of making thingamabobs . . . and only when
we see a line of drool do we notice that our audience has fallen asleep
standing up.
In promoting a product or service, we often have to explain
a highly technical concept before painting client benefits.
For example, a (theoretical) change in the tax code carries
stiff penalties for businesses that don’t file a specific form by September 1.
An accountant could send a copy of the new code to all the business owners in
his database. But they probably wouldn’t read it.
To spark action, said accountant needs to do two things:
- Explain the change in a way that makes sense to
non-accountants.
- Explain the benefits of meeting the filing
deadline (no penalties).
The following checklist can help you write user-friendly
copy that gets results:
- Does it pass the 'Mom test'? Pretend
you’re talking to your non-technically inclined mother. If Mom’s a rocket
scientist, use your eight-year-old niece instead. If your words don’t make
sense to someone outside the business, find another way to express the idea.
- Is it relevant? Read each sentence.
Does a reader really need to know that bit of information? If it’s interesting
but unnecessary, cut it out. (Paste the text into another document for later if
you find writing painful and hate to waste a single word. I have various
“slush” files throughout my directories.)
- What’s in it for me? Sometimes we
get so caught up in the beauty of how
something works that we forget to explain why
it’s so cool. Think technology: a Pentium D 3.4 gigahertz processor with 2
megabytes of RAM doesn’t mean much to your average bear. But tell a gaming
freak that this machine stores all the data she needs to play hours
of Warcraft without changing CDs . . . Those numbers take on new meaning.
Did you find this article useful? If so,
please share. And
if not, let me know where I missed the mark.
Until next month.
