6 Tips to Write Clear, not Clever, Content

“Be Clear Not Clever”

In January, I completed my #Ship30for30 digital writing cohort. One of the messages that resonated most was this: Communicating in clear language is one of the best improvements we can do.

This is hard and even counter-intuitive. Our society makes us believe that clever people write complex and inaccessible content.

The opposite is true.

Writing with clarity is a craft. It takes a huge amount of skill to communicate complex concepts in a clear and accessible manner.

One thing I like to say: “Simplicity is elegant”

For the past few months, I been paying extra attention at how people communicate in written and oral form. I admire people that can be articulate and still keep their content clear and simple. Meanwhile, those that rejoice in using obscure language are very disengaging.

So, here are a 6 tips you can do to keep your content clear:

✅ Use tools like Hemingway or Grammarly to check the readability of your text.

✅ Use translation tools like DeepL to translate your text to another language and back. If what comes back is strange, it is a sign that your original text was not clear enough.