How we Write, Think and Learn

Michael A. Covington of the Artificial Intelligence Center at the University of Georgia has published a presentation named “How to Write More Clearly, Think More Clearly, and Learn Complex Material More Easily.”

I have read it over two times now and I’ve plucked out a few notable ideas. I’ve never been an excellent writer, I typically err on the side on concision and terseness. This can be less than desirable in a couple of situations, a) the shortness is interpreted as hostility and b) a lack of detail leads to people having to fill in the details.

The ideas that stuck out to me are:

The unselfish perspective
Good writing is partly a matter of character.
Instead of doing what’s easy for you,
do what’s easy for your reader.

My terseness is due to laziness, I take the easy way out often because I don’t particularly like writing.

If you can’t envision the audience, try using yourself as a sample.

At work I keep this in mind when writing every email now. I’m finding that with the addition of four or five words I can increase the clarity of the email and I’m doing both the recipient and myself a favour. If the email is more clear they can act more quickly and I don’t have to write a follow-up email clarifying my previous email, win-win.