Legal Humor | Writing

There Is An Unspoken Contract Between Us

The binding agreement which allows Readers to bend Writers to their will

Photo by Amy Hirschi on Unsplash

Each interaction holds hidden agreements. You, Reader, have unwittingly signed a silent pact with me the moment you began reading this. Don’t believe me? Read on and decide for yourself.

I’ll warn you, though. The deeper you go, the more entrenched the pact becomes.

As we traverse the internet age, the contracts between creators and consumers have become nuanced. With a book, newspaper, or magazine, the agreement was simple: ‘Entertain, teach, or inform in exchange for respect, money, and/or admiration. In some formats, an additional certification was thrown into the mix to seal the deal — marketable skills to increase the Reader’s income potential. The internet certainly has that… and more.

Your contract with me may be invisible, but it’s binding. To understand the expectations, we must first delve into each section of clear-coated fine print.

Section 1: Implicit Trust (Agreement To Suspension Of Disbelief)

Once the Reader consumes the first word, let it be known that they must afford the writer all due belief as within reason. Depending on the nature of the writing, this disbelief may extend further than realistic expectations.

When you began reading, this pact was immediately in effect. Without implicit trust in the words being true and accurate, nothing can be communicated through them. Indeed, all communication requires several degrees of trust:

• Common definitions to words — otherwise comprehension would be impossible.
• Writer reliability — madness produces gobbledygook which may sound sane at times, but we assume insane people will be revealed as such.
• Conceptual benefit — reading is assumed to grant a net positive; for the writer to withhold or falsify the conceptual value is a common and devastating breach of this unspoken contract.

You, Dear Reader, agree to suspend your disbelief so long as I stay within reasonable believability — including reasonable usage of words. In…