How to write sentences as clear as water. (Public domain, D.Jensen)

Avid readers gravitate to nonfiction writers who present complicated ideas with clarity. That preference explains why book clubs often read the work of writers like Malcolm Gladwell, Oliver Sacks and Thomas Friedman, all of whom write about abstract ideas in clear, precise sentences in plain English.

Having studied his own communication with stakeholders at the Rhode Island School of Design, University President John Maeda has determined that:

Transparency and clarity are two completely different things, and in many cases complete clarity should be a leader's goal rather than complete transparency.

In his article, Maeda explains that transparency implies letting the reader see everything, all the data, all the interpretation.  Clarity means making sure the reader understands the relevant data and interpretation.  This distinction is important, given how business and government leaders so frequently focus their efforts on improving the transparency of their work, without ever managing to make it clear.

Yet readers who do explicitly value clarity in the authors they prefer may not know how to achieve clarity in their own writing. Here is how to check and improve the clarity of your own complicated sentences:

USE CONCRETE SUBJECTS AND ACTIVE VERBS, CLOSE TOGETHER

1.Find the verb(s): 

• Change the tense of the sentence twice.
• Look for whatever changes.  That is the verb. (You may find several.)
• Underline verbs twice.

2.Find the subject(s):

• Find the person or thing that does each verb. (You may find several.)
• Underline subjects once.

3.Check the clarity:

• Ask yourself: is each subject concrete? Can I touch it? Or is it an abstract idea?
• Ask yourself: Is each verb active? Or is it passive?
• If your subject is abstract and your verb passive...

4.Fix the clarity:

• Refocus the sentence on a concrete subject, the person or thing you are talking about.
• Give that concrete subject an active verb; say what the subject is doing.
• Keep the subject and verb close together in the sentence.

In this way you will have focused your complicated, abstract idea around the concrete things and action at their center.  You will have given your reader a clearer understanding of what you mean.

Go to What's Your Point? Workplace Writing Consultants.

Go to Why do book clubs love Malcolm Gladwell?  He reads deeply and writes clearly, in plain English

Go to book club questions for The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, by Oliver Sacks.