It has been said that muddy waters often appear deep. Muddy waters prevent us from seeing the bottom of the pond or stream, and so we cannot determine how deep it is. The same idea applies to writing.
Some writers seek to impress their audience with big words and confusing sentence structures. They believe that if they obscure their meaning, readers will think that they are saying something profound. But if they are truly saying something profound, why do they make their meaning difficult to understand?
Good writers seek clarity. They want to be understood. They don’t want their readers guessing about their meaning, because readers usually guess incorrectly. A good writer writes what he means and means what he writes. And he doesn’t hide behind pretentious vocabulary or confusing sentence structures.
The Cambridge dictionary defines clarity as ” the quality of being clear and easy to understand, see, or hear.” Good writers want to be understood, they want to communicate, and they make clarity their goal. Bad writers can have many motivations, but clarity in communication is not one of them.
As an example, consider this sentence: The precipitation descended at such a voluminous rate that my ocular senses were rendered incapable of discerning the thoroughfare. You may be able to figure out what the writer is communicating, but it would likely take some effort. The meaning isn’t easy to understand.
In contrast, consider this sentence: It was raining so hard that I couldn’t see the road. The sentence means the same thing as the previous example, but the meaning is quite clear and easy to understand.
In general, simple sentences are easier to understand than compound or complex sentences. The more clauses that we use, the more difficult it is to connect them in a way that is easy to understand. But using only simple sentences can become boring, and it also limits our ability to communicate ideas that are connected. To be clear, clarity does not demand the use of simple words and sentence structures. Clarity does demand extreme care in our choice of words and the structure of our sentences.
In writing, clarity is king. Clarity is how we communicate effectively.
Click here to go to the first lesson on clarity.