The Science Behind Clear Writing | Ep12

Writing mastery isn't about natural talent or rigid rules—it's a learnable craft that anyone can develop through understanding how language works and how readers process information.

• The "curse of knowledge" explains why good writers struggle to communicate clearly—we assume readers know what we know
• Classic style adopts a conversational approach, treating language as a clear window to the subject
• "Tree thinking" helps understand how sentences are structured and avoid common syntax problems
• Garden path sentences and syntactic ambiguities create confusion when readers must backtrack to understand meaning
• Coherence requires building logical connections between ideas using parallel structure and connecting words
• Many traditional writing rules are outdated—writers should understand when rules help clarity and when they don't
• The Oxford comma, strategic punctuation, and avoiding redundancy improve readability
• Reading aloud and getting feedback from intended readers helps overcome your own knowledge bias

The ultimate test of your writing: show it to someone from your intended audience to see if they understand what you meant to say.