The power of simplicity
Speak powerfully to your audience by expressing the core of your message
Simple ideas are powerful. It’s easier to remember a compact phrase than a complicated paragraph. When we write, we do well to seek out simple ways to express our core message. If we can do that, people will more easily understand and remember what we’ve written.
Knowing your audience is vital when you write. You need to pitch your language so that it’s understood and appreciated by your readers. Many of you have written theological, research, or academic essays or theses. That type of paper demands a certain type of writing and has a narrow audience. Prayer letters and articles for Japan Harvest have different, often broader audiences.
We each have expertise in particular areas. This means we know a lot about a certain topic and understand the complexity and nuances embedded in the topic. But we often forget what it’s like not to know what we know: “At that point, making something simple can seem like ‘dumbing down.’ As an expert, we don’t want to be accused of propagating sound bites or pandering to the lowest common denominator. Simplifying, we fear, can devolve into oversimplifying.”1
I have found, though, that if an expert can communicate their complex ideas in simple ways so that I, a non-expert, can understand them, I appreciate their skill even more—as an expert as well as a communicator. So we needn’t be afraid that writing with simplicity makes us look dumb. But one thing to keep in mind as we seek to write simply is that we’re respectful to our audience and don’t treat them as ignorant or simple-minded.
In a group recently, I shared a portion of the story of how I ended up as an editor. Someone said, “I loved your story. You shared your passion.” That person found the essence of what I’d shared, even though I hadn’t explicitly stated it, and it spoke powerfully to them.
When you write about a topic, seek out the core of your message and don’t let the details distract from that core. Try to find a way to simplify your main point down to just a few words. Your audience will appreciate it, and more people will be able to read and remember what you’ve written.
1. Chip Heath and Dan Heath, Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die (London: Arrow Books, 2007), 46.