August 1, 2023 • 19 mins
Ever felt like you're drowning in an ocean of complex words while reading? Wish you could break through the walls of jargon and make sense of that technical documentation? Us, too!
In this episode, some of our team our expertise and experience on simplifying writing for everyone's benefit. We dive into the heart of the SIMPL editorial code, a tool that advocates for readers and ensures technical concepts are explained with clarity and simplicity.
This episode isn’t just about simple language, though. We also discuss the nuances of writing for international audiences, the importance of understanding your audience, and how to pitch your writing just right. We share practical tips on making writing more accessible—like avoiding jargon, spelling out acronyms, and choosing culturally neutral words. We highlight the importance of having multiple eyes review your work—because everyone knows, two (or three) heads are better than one!
Whether you're a technical agency, a product company, or a b2b technical business, join us as we unravel the power of simple language and clear communication.
Welcome to the Open Strategy Partners podcast, "Communicate, Connect, Grow!" At Open Strategy Partners, we specialize in strategic product communication. We help you communicate the value of what you do, connect you with the people who need to know about it, and grow.
To get in touch with us, follow what we’re doing, or learn about our Writer Enablement Workshops, you can:
- Go to our website
- Email us at hello@openstrategypartners.com
- Hit us up on Twitter
- Subscribe to our podcast wherever you listen to podcasts
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Carl Richards (00:07):
Hi, i'm Carl from OSP and this is Communicate,
connect Grow, the OSP podcast.
On today's episode, we'retalking about making writing
easy to understand with theeditorial code SIMPLE.
If you want to be a moreeffective writer, a more
transparent editor, developclearer strategic thinking or
(00:27):
learn from our network of expertfriends and colleagues, that's
what we're here for.
We divide our episodes acrossthree themes Communicate,
connect and Grow.
This is a Communicate episodeand we're talking about using
clear language with oureditorial code SIMPLE.
The SIMPLE editing code fallsinto the style and phrasing
(01:03):
phase of the editing process andit's about being mindful of who
you're writing for.
In our documentation about thiscode, it says use SIMPLE
language where possible.
This is especially importantfor international audiences.
Felicity Brand (01:18):
Hi, i'm Felicity Brand.
I'm a communications consultantat OSP.
The SIMPLE code is about usingSIMPLE language to get your
message across.
It's about being mindful ofyour audience and writing in a
way that helps them reachunderstanding.
No one will ever complain thatyou've made things too simple to
understand.
(01:38):
I wish that quote was from me,but that's from Anne Handley,
one of her 13 writing rules.
We'll put that in the shownotes.
The SIMPLE code falls in ouraccessibility category of our
editing codes.
It's about making sure that thewriting can be understood by as
broad an audience as possible.
(01:58):
You might have heard of thingslike the fleshkin-cade
readability test and thatmeasures how easily written
language is to understand.
It looks at sentence length,word length and number of
syllables.
That's what this SIMPLE code isabout, hi.
Jeffrey A. McGuire (02:17):
Jeffrey McGuire.
Here.
Most people call me Jam becausemy middle initial is an A.
I am a co-founder and partnerat Open Strategy Partners.
These helpful editing andwriting codes that we're talking
about came originally frompeople trying to decode and
(02:39):
share my editing brain with ourteam, and I'm really, really
pleased with the results after afew years of doing this
together.
The sort of writing that we domostly at Open Strategy Partners
when we're helping technicalagencies, product companies, b2b
technical businesses.
(02:59):
We're helping them communicatethe value of the things that
they build and giving people onthe outside the opportunity to
try it or download it or join acommunity or make a purchase.
One of the founding ideas aboutOpen Strategy Partners was
(03:20):
developers and marketers don'talways know how to talk with
each other.
These are both communities ofpeople that tend to use jargon.
There's lots of business jargon.
There's lots of certainly lotsof technical jargon.
It can be pretty easy to explainthings to your peers in ways
that make sense to you, becauseyou do it every day And you
(03:40):
might forget that noteverybody's up to speed on your
language.
So I really feel it helpseveryone if you make things as
simple as possible and ascomplex as it needs Right.
So there's an idea for my tastein this writing of keeping
things fairly plain and fairlyclear.
(04:01):
The other side of that coin isin my life story and I am
multilingual And by the time Iwas in graduate school in New
York City, i was living in abuilding with 700 people from
probably 100 countries aroundthe world And I learned very,
very quickly that I had to speakvery clearly and choose my
(04:24):
words very carefully.
And doing that helped me makefriends and have terrific
experiences, and I really thinkthere's value in being mindful
about how we're communicatingAnd in this technology world
where we're helping people, i amjust as glad to help my client
make a sale in anEnglish-speaking country as in a
(04:48):
non-English-speaking country orwhatever language we're working
in, because we know work inmultiple languages.
But essentially, to make thecontent as accessible as
possible, we should write aswell as possible and we should
be as simple and as clear as wepossibly can.
Christine Buehler (05:04):
I am Christine Bueller and I work for
Open Strategy Partners as acommunications consultant, where
I work on blog posts,newsletters, emails, case
studies all sorts ofcommunications materials.
So simple is aboutcomprehension and clarity.
(05:28):
It just means using simplelanguage where it's possible to
do so, which is especiallyimportant for international
audiences, of which, i wouldprobably argue, most businesses
have an international audiencenowadays, so important.
Chris Fenwick (05:49):
Hi, my name is Chris.
I work at OSB as a copyrighteditor.
I think simple is as it says isvery simple Don't use too
complicated language.
I mean, i think there's acouple of ways you can interpret
that.
I think on the one hand it canbe vocabulary choice and the
other it can be sentencestructure.
If your sentences are gettingtoo long and unwieldy and
(06:12):
difficult to follow, you cansimplify them and chop them up
into three separate sentences.
That would be one way ofsimplifying and the other would
be not using too much technicaldomain specific vocabulary if
the piece is for a generalaudience.
Carl Richards (06:28):
Let's explore how this code is used in the
editing process.
Felicity Brand (06:32):
As an editor, when we're looking at the simple
code, we're advocating for thereader, So we're thinking about
all the folks out there who maybe coming to this writing And
remember this code is in ouraccessibility category, So we're
being mindful of translation, aglobal audience, language
crossing not only borders butlevels of knowledge.
(06:55):
In practical terms, this mightmean avoiding jargon, spelling
out acronyms, explainingtechnical concepts when needed,
software or hardware concepts,swapping out cultural or
geographically specific words.
writing about tech, which iswhat we do a lot at OSP, can get
(07:18):
pretty dense, pretty technical,pretty involved.
So this code is about helpingbring technical information to
as many readers as possible byhelping them understand by using
simple language.
Jeffrey A. McGuire (07:31):
As an editor .
We have the chance to help eachother at Open Strategy Partners
.
Just about everybody who writesalso edits and anyone who edits
also writes.
So we have the chance to helpeach other.
And a second and third pair ofeyes always improves our
communications And, honestly, ifsomething is a jumble or I have
to read it two and a half timesto get my head around it,
(07:55):
that's a giant signal for me tostop and figure out what's going
on, If it's not an error orsome other problem.
I often end up finding a way toclarify things and make them
simpler.
Maybe make one longer sentenceinto two, maybe make a list of
items into a bulleted list inthe formatting, and open things
(08:18):
up and keep things moving, keepthings consumable.
Christine Buehler (08:22):
As an editor.
Simple is helpful because Imean, for one thing, you don't
want to be pausing to look upwords all the time if you're
editing something, even thoughyou know if you are an editor,
you probably have a pretty bigvocabulary Not true for everyone
.
It's also just a kindness toyour fellow editors At OSP.
(08:48):
We definitely have writers andeditors from all over the world,
keeping in mind that you mayhave an international team of
editors as well as aninternational audience, and you
just want to make it easier foryour fellow editors to read your
work.
Chris Fenwick (09:09):
I think as an editor, there's always kind of
two ways you use the codes.
There's like the positivereinforcement way, where if you
see somebody has done somethingparticularly elegantly in this
case they've provided aparticularly nice explanation of
some technical concept then youwould sort of say you would
give them the code with a plussign to indicate that they've
done a good job there.
(09:29):
The other way to use it isobviously where somebody needs
to correct something, and inthat case I think it would be
the case that you know ifthey're trying to explain some
some bit of technology, like howblockchain works or whatever,
whatever it might be or how someform of encryption works, if
they are doing it in a mannerthat is still a bit too
(09:50):
technical, you might have to usethe code to tell me to break it
down.
Carl Richards (09:55):
When writing.
Felicity Brand (09:55):
There are many different ways you can approach
this code when it comes to thecode simple, it can be a little
bit counterintuitive.
I think it's harder than youmight think to write simply.
It's a real skill to distillsomething down to its bare
essentials, and you really needto understand the subject matter
(10:16):
you're writing about to be ableto do it.
You can't get hand wavy ifyou're.
If you're trying to writesimply, you really need to be
able to understand a thing sothat you can craft your message
Using simple words to bestexplain your point.
The biggest influence here isgoing to be your audience.
(10:38):
When you know who you'rewriting for, that will help you
pitch your writing at the bestlevel.
So what am I trying to say?
it's hard to write simply.
Do your best, i would say,probably throw more words at it
than you might need to, and on asecond or third pass, try to
whittle it down, tighten it up,being mindful of your audience,
(10:59):
to kind of remove words that maymuddy the message, and a
friendly editor is also going tohelp you keep your writing
simple.
So, yeah, i guess there's noshortcuts with simple.
Jeffrey A. McGuire (11:11):
If I've been spending a lot of time with
educated native English speakers, if I've been going to cultural
events, if I've been reading alot of a certain kind of book,
my fingers want to produce allsorts of wonderful and
interesting and obscure wordsthat are fun to know and fun to
use.
That is not the right thing todo in my professional context,
(11:35):
which is to help people explainWhat the value of their, of
their products and services are.
So I need to remember to Wakemy inner Hemingway.
I am not claiming to haveanything like that quality, but
the idea of simple, strong Wordscertainly is important in how
(11:55):
we work at OSP and we have someother codes that talk about
using active verbs and they'reall around getting things kind
of chunky and good, yeah.
Christine Buehler (12:05):
As a writer, i'm making an effort to be
cognizant of simple.
That's probably a word Iwouldn't use.
There's a good example If I waswriting this, because, for one
thing, if you are writing to atechnical audience, some words
(12:26):
might just might not alwaystranslate.
I think the main goal of anywriter is to be understood, and
so you don't want to be gettingin your own way by using overly
complicated words.
Someone might not know what,for million, is which is a shade
of red, but I'm sure they knowred.
(12:47):
So it's just part of beinginclusive while you're writing.
Chris Fenwick (12:53):
I don't think this is one of the things that
is at the front of the mindswhen writing.
I think it's more somethingthat you adapt to and you kind
of learn over the years of doingthe job.
At certain times it'sappropriate to Simplify things
and try to make things likereally obvious for a general
audience, but it's more of athing that I think you
(13:15):
intuitively learn as a writerand then you would maybe apply
it more reflectively as aneditor.
Carl Richards (13:23):
Why is this editing code important to
readers?
how do they benefit from it?
Felicity Brand (13:28):
As a reader, don't make me feel stupid.
Simple is about helping meunderstand, but don't talk down
to me.
It's a fine line.
I'm reading an article becauseI'm interested and motivated to
know what it has to say, so I'mseeking understanding.
Help me achieve that by takingcare of me by using simple
(13:48):
language.
Don't assume my knowledge.
As a reader, i'm more likely toact on a CTA, a call to action,
when I feel respected, and soI'm going to feel respected when
the writing is simple tounderstand but it's not making
me feel stupid.
Jeffrey A. McGuire (14:08):
So we've done our work right and we've
channeled the knowledge andexpertise of our clients into
content.
I am hoping that people whocould benefit from knowing about
it are going to have theeasiest time possible to find it
and to consume it.
So in other podcast episodes wetalk about structuring into
(14:28):
production, helping peopledecide whether to read things or
not, but once they actuallymake that decision we've all got
very limited time in our day.
We've all got so many thingsgoing on at any time.
I want you to be able to readwhat we've done, understand it
and make a decision to read more, make a decision to make a
purchase, make a decision to goon and look at the next thing as
(14:49):
smoothly as you can.
So that's the experience thatI'm hoping that readers and
consumers get when we're doingour job, like we say we want to
at OSP.
Christine Buehler (14:59):
So, as a reader, simple is important
because if I'm reading very long, complex jargony words then,
depending what those words are,I might not feel like this paper
is intended for me to read.
(15:19):
If you're not using simplelanguage, it kind of kicks more
people out of the audiencecategory more quickly, which is
usually not what you want.
Chris Fenwick (15:32):
I think for a reader I mean again, the reader
is not necessarily conscious ofwhat's going on when they're
reading the piece.
it's more about the effect thatit has on them.
So if sentence is getting toolong and unwieldy, then they'll
just get lost and then theymight jump to another piece.
And likewise, if you're tryingto give some sort of explanation
and then it sounds more likeit's angel developers than a
general audience, then theymight also just stop reading and
(15:55):
close the tab and then you'vefail to engage the people you
want to engage.
Carl Richards (16:17):
I hope you, dear listener, can apply some of the
principles we've covered in thisepisode.
Next time you start creating apiece of content, think about
your audience and choose simplelanguage to get your message
across.
Share your examples orquestions with us via Twitter,
at open underscore strategy, oremail hello at
openstrategypartnerscom.
(16:38):
This was one of the editorialcodes we use at OSP.
We'll be sharing more of themas we go.
If you'd like to learn more inthe meantime, come over to
openstrategypartnerscom, have alook at our writer enablement,
workshops, case study offeringor get in touch to talk about
your strategy or productcommunication needs.
(16:58):
Thanks to everyone whocontributed to this podcast All
the P's at OSP.
Thanks to our clients whobelieve in us.
Shout out to Patrick Gommal forour high energy maple syrup
flavored theme music And to MikeSnow for additional horn
arrangements.
Thank you for listening andsubscribing About our three
(17:19):
themes on the podcast You'llhear from different members of
the OSP team hosting episodesover time.
Communicate All thingscommunication We share how we
tackle writing, editing, wordchoices, formats, processes and
more.
Connect In-depth conversationswith interesting, smart people
(17:40):
about who they are, what they doand how they approach their
life and work as communicators,technologists and leaders Grow.
We cover strategic approachesto understanding and expressing
the value of what you do,including tools, templates and
practical applications.
We also feel strongly aboutbuilding a mindful, positive,
(18:03):
human first culture at work.
That's bound to pop up fromtime to time too.
This podcast is us figuring outcommunication, connection and
growing together.
Subscribe now on YouTube, applePodcast or the podcast channel
of your choice.
Follow us, suggest guests andtopics, ask us questions.
(18:23):
On social media, we are at OpenUnderscore Strategy on Twitter.
Until next time.
Thanks for listening toCommunicate, connect, grow, the
OSP Podcast.
Felicity Brand (19:05):
So, yeah, I guess there's no shortcuts with
simple.
It is difficult, but try.
Yeah, I got nothing.
Give it your best shot.
Jeffrey A. McGuire (19:21):
Keep it simple, stoney.
Keep it simple Super.
Keep it simple Sarah.
Hi, i'm Carl from OSP and this is Communicate,
connect Grow, the OSP podcast.
On today's episode, we'retalking about making writing
easy to understand with theeditorial code SIMPLE.
If you want to be a moreeffective writer, a more
transparent editor, developclearer strategic thinking or
(00:27):
learn from our network of expertfriends and colleagues, that's
what we're here for.
We divide our episodes acrossthree themes Communicate,
connect and Grow.
This is a Communicate episodeand we're talking about using
clear language with oureditorial code SIMPLE.
The SIMPLE editing code fallsinto the style and phrasing
(01:03):
phase of the editing process andit's about being mindful of who
you're writing for.
In our documentation about thiscode, it says use SIMPLE
language where possible.
This is especially importantfor international audiences.
Felicity Brand (01:18):
Hi, i'm Felicity Brand.
I'm a communications consultantat OSP.
The SIMPLE code is about usingSIMPLE language to get your
message across.
It's about being mindful ofyour audience and writing in a
way that helps them reachunderstanding.
No one will ever complain thatyou've made things too simple to
understand.
(01:38):
I wish that quote was from me,but that's from Anne Handley,
one of her 13 writing rules.
We'll put that in the shownotes.
The SIMPLE code falls in ouraccessibility category of our
editing codes.
It's about making sure that thewriting can be understood by as
broad an audience as possible.
(01:58):
You might have heard of thingslike the fleshkin-cade
readability test and thatmeasures how easily written
language is to understand.
It looks at sentence length,word length and number of
syllables.
That's what this SIMPLE code isabout, hi.
Jeffrey A. McGuire (02:17):
Jeffrey McGuire.
Here.
Most people call me Jam becausemy middle initial is an A.
I am a co-founder and partnerat Open Strategy Partners.
These helpful editing andwriting codes that we're talking
about came originally frompeople trying to decode and
(02:39):
share my editing brain with ourteam, and I'm really, really
pleased with the results after afew years of doing this
together.
The sort of writing that we domostly at Open Strategy Partners
when we're helping technicalagencies, product companies, b2b
technical businesses.
(02:59):
We're helping them communicatethe value of the things that
they build and giving people onthe outside the opportunity to
try it or download it or join acommunity or make a purchase.
One of the founding ideas aboutOpen Strategy Partners was
(03:20):
developers and marketers don'talways know how to talk with
each other.
These are both communities ofpeople that tend to use jargon.
There's lots of business jargon.
There's lots of certainly lotsof technical jargon.
It can be pretty easy to explainthings to your peers in ways
that make sense to you, becauseyou do it every day And you
(03:40):
might forget that noteverybody's up to speed on your
language.
So I really feel it helpseveryone if you make things as
simple as possible and ascomplex as it needs Right.
So there's an idea for my tastein this writing of keeping
things fairly plain and fairlyclear.
(04:01):
The other side of that coin isin my life story and I am
multilingual And by the time Iwas in graduate school in New
York City, i was living in abuilding with 700 people from
probably 100 countries aroundthe world And I learned very,
very quickly that I had to speakvery clearly and choose my
(04:24):
words very carefully.
And doing that helped me makefriends and have terrific
experiences, and I really thinkthere's value in being mindful
about how we're communicatingAnd in this technology world
where we're helping people, i amjust as glad to help my client
make a sale in anEnglish-speaking country as in a
(04:48):
non-English-speaking country orwhatever language we're working
in, because we know work inmultiple languages.
But essentially, to make thecontent as accessible as
possible, we should write aswell as possible and we should
be as simple and as clear as wepossibly can.
Christine Buehler (05:04):
I am Christine Bueller and I work for
Open Strategy Partners as acommunications consultant, where
I work on blog posts,newsletters, emails, case
studies all sorts ofcommunications materials.
So simple is aboutcomprehension and clarity.
(05:28):
It just means using simplelanguage where it's possible to
do so, which is especiallyimportant for international
audiences, of which, i wouldprobably argue, most businesses
have an international audiencenowadays, so important.
Chris Fenwick (05:49):
Hi, my name is Chris.
I work at OSB as a copyrighteditor.
I think simple is as it says isvery simple Don't use too
complicated language.
I mean, i think there's acouple of ways you can interpret
that.
I think on the one hand it canbe vocabulary choice and the
other it can be sentencestructure.
If your sentences are gettingtoo long and unwieldy and
(06:12):
difficult to follow, you cansimplify them and chop them up
into three separate sentences.
That would be one way ofsimplifying and the other would
be not using too much technicaldomain specific vocabulary if
the piece is for a generalaudience.
Carl Richards (06:28):
Let's explore how this code is used in the
editing process.
Felicity Brand (06:32):
As an editor, when we're looking at the simple
code, we're advocating for thereader, So we're thinking about
all the folks out there who maybe coming to this writing And
remember this code is in ouraccessibility category, So we're
being mindful of translation, aglobal audience, language
crossing not only borders butlevels of knowledge.
(06:55):
In practical terms, this mightmean avoiding jargon, spelling
out acronyms, explainingtechnical concepts when needed,
software or hardware concepts,swapping out cultural or
geographically specific words.
writing about tech, which iswhat we do a lot at OSP, can get
(07:18):
pretty dense, pretty technical,pretty involved.
So this code is about helpingbring technical information to
as many readers as possible byhelping them understand by using
simple language.
Jeffrey A. McGuire (07:31):
As an editor .
We have the chance to help eachother at Open Strategy Partners
.
Just about everybody who writesalso edits and anyone who edits
also writes.
So we have the chance to helpeach other.
And a second and third pair ofeyes always improves our
communications And, honestly, ifsomething is a jumble or I have
to read it two and a half timesto get my head around it,
(07:55):
that's a giant signal for me tostop and figure out what's going
on, If it's not an error orsome other problem.
I often end up finding a way toclarify things and make them
simpler.
Maybe make one longer sentenceinto two, maybe make a list of
items into a bulleted list inthe formatting, and open things
(08:18):
up and keep things moving, keepthings consumable.
Christine Buehler (08:22):
As an editor.
Simple is helpful because Imean, for one thing, you don't
want to be pausing to look upwords all the time if you're
editing something, even thoughyou know if you are an editor,
you probably have a pretty bigvocabulary Not true for everyone
.
It's also just a kindness toyour fellow editors At OSP.
(08:48):
We definitely have writers andeditors from all over the world,
keeping in mind that you mayhave an international team of
editors as well as aninternational audience, and you
just want to make it easier foryour fellow editors to read your
work.
Chris Fenwick (09:09):
I think as an editor, there's always kind of
two ways you use the codes.
There's like the positivereinforcement way, where if you
see somebody has done somethingparticularly elegantly in this
case they've provided aparticularly nice explanation of
some technical concept then youwould sort of say you would
give them the code with a plussign to indicate that they've
done a good job there.
(09:29):
The other way to use it isobviously where somebody needs
to correct something, and inthat case I think it would be
the case that you know ifthey're trying to explain some
some bit of technology, like howblockchain works or whatever,
whatever it might be or how someform of encryption works, if
they are doing it in a mannerthat is still a bit too
(09:50):
technical, you might have to usethe code to tell me to break it
down.
Carl Richards (09:55):
When writing.
Felicity Brand (09:55):
There are many different ways you can approach
this code when it comes to thecode simple, it can be a little
bit counterintuitive.
I think it's harder than youmight think to write simply.
It's a real skill to distillsomething down to its bare
essentials, and you really needto understand the subject matter
(10:16):
you're writing about to be ableto do it.
You can't get hand wavy ifyou're.
If you're trying to writesimply, you really need to be
able to understand a thing sothat you can craft your message
Using simple words to bestexplain your point.
The biggest influence here isgoing to be your audience.
(10:38):
When you know who you'rewriting for, that will help you
pitch your writing at the bestlevel.
So what am I trying to say?
it's hard to write simply.
Do your best, i would say,probably throw more words at it
than you might need to, and on asecond or third pass, try to
whittle it down, tighten it up,being mindful of your audience,
(10:59):
to kind of remove words that maymuddy the message, and a
friendly editor is also going tohelp you keep your writing
simple.
So, yeah, i guess there's noshortcuts with simple.
Jeffrey A. McGuire (11:11):
If I've been spending a lot of time with
educated native English speakers, if I've been going to cultural
events, if I've been reading alot of a certain kind of book,
my fingers want to produce allsorts of wonderful and
interesting and obscure wordsthat are fun to know and fun to
use.
That is not the right thing todo in my professional context,
(11:35):
which is to help people explainWhat the value of their, of
their products and services are.
So I need to remember to Wakemy inner Hemingway.
I am not claiming to haveanything like that quality, but
the idea of simple, strong Wordscertainly is important in how
(11:55):
we work at OSP and we have someother codes that talk about
using active verbs and they'reall around getting things kind
of chunky and good, yeah.
Christine Buehler (12:05):
As a writer, i'm making an effort to be
cognizant of simple.
That's probably a word Iwouldn't use.
There's a good example If I waswriting this, because, for one
thing, if you are writing to atechnical audience, some words
(12:26):
might just might not alwaystranslate.
I think the main goal of anywriter is to be understood, and
so you don't want to be gettingin your own way by using overly
complicated words.
Someone might not know what,for million, is which is a shade
of red, but I'm sure they knowred.
(12:47):
So it's just part of beinginclusive while you're writing.
Chris Fenwick (12:53):
I don't think this is one of the things that
is at the front of the mindswhen writing.
I think it's more somethingthat you adapt to and you kind
of learn over the years of doingthe job.
At certain times it'sappropriate to Simplify things
and try to make things likereally obvious for a general
audience, but it's more of athing that I think you
(13:15):
intuitively learn as a writerand then you would maybe apply
it more reflectively as aneditor.
Carl Richards (13:23):
Why is this editing code important to
readers?
how do they benefit from it?
Felicity Brand (13:28):
As a reader, don't make me feel stupid.
Simple is about helping meunderstand, but don't talk down
to me.
It's a fine line.
I'm reading an article becauseI'm interested and motivated to
know what it has to say, so I'mseeking understanding.
Help me achieve that by takingcare of me by using simple
(13:48):
language.
Don't assume my knowledge.
As a reader, i'm more likely toact on a CTA, a call to action,
when I feel respected, and soI'm going to feel respected when
the writing is simple tounderstand but it's not making
me feel stupid.
Jeffrey A. McGuire (14:08):
So we've done our work right and we've
channeled the knowledge andexpertise of our clients into
content.
I am hoping that people whocould benefit from knowing about
it are going to have theeasiest time possible to find it
and to consume it.
So in other podcast episodes wetalk about structuring into
(14:28):
production, helping peopledecide whether to read things or
not, but once they actuallymake that decision we've all got
very limited time in our day.
We've all got so many thingsgoing on at any time.
I want you to be able to readwhat we've done, understand it
and make a decision to read more, make a decision to make a
purchase, make a decision to goon and look at the next thing as
(14:49):
smoothly as you can.
So that's the experience thatI'm hoping that readers and
consumers get when we're doingour job, like we say we want to
at OSP.
Christine Buehler (14:59):
So, as a reader, simple is important
because if I'm reading very long, complex jargony words then,
depending what those words are,I might not feel like this paper
is intended for me to read.
(15:19):
If you're not using simplelanguage, it kind of kicks more
people out of the audiencecategory more quickly, which is
usually not what you want.
Chris Fenwick (15:32):
I think for a reader I mean again, the reader
is not necessarily conscious ofwhat's going on when they're
reading the piece.
it's more about the effect thatit has on them.
So if sentence is getting toolong and unwieldy, then they'll
just get lost and then theymight jump to another piece.
And likewise, if you're tryingto give some sort of explanation
and then it sounds more likeit's angel developers than a
general audience, then theymight also just stop reading and
(15:55):
close the tab and then you'vefail to engage the people you
want to engage.
Carl Richards (16:17):
I hope you, dear listener, can apply some of the
principles we've covered in thisepisode.
Next time you start creating apiece of content, think about
your audience and choose simplelanguage to get your message
across.
Share your examples orquestions with us via Twitter,
at open underscore strategy, oremail hello at
openstrategypartnerscom.
(16:38):
This was one of the editorialcodes we use at OSP.
We'll be sharing more of themas we go.
If you'd like to learn more inthe meantime, come over to
openstrategypartnerscom, have alook at our writer enablement,
workshops, case study offeringor get in touch to talk about
your strategy or productcommunication needs.
(16:58):
Thanks to everyone whocontributed to this podcast All
the P's at OSP.
Thanks to our clients whobelieve in us.
Shout out to Patrick Gommal forour high energy maple syrup
flavored theme music And to MikeSnow for additional horn
arrangements.
Thank you for listening andsubscribing About our three
(17:19):
themes on the podcast You'llhear from different members of
the OSP team hosting episodesover time.
Communicate All thingscommunication We share how we
tackle writing, editing, wordchoices, formats, processes and
more.
Connect In-depth conversationswith interesting, smart people
(17:40):
about who they are, what they doand how they approach their
life and work as communicators,technologists and leaders Grow.
We cover strategic approachesto understanding and expressing
the value of what you do,including tools, templates and
practical applications.
We also feel strongly aboutbuilding a mindful, positive,
(18:03):
human first culture at work.
That's bound to pop up fromtime to time too.
This podcast is us figuring outcommunication, connection and
growing together.
Subscribe now on YouTube, applePodcast or the podcast channel
of your choice.
Follow us, suggest guests andtopics, ask us questions.
(18:23):
On social media, we are at OpenUnderscore Strategy on Twitter.
Until next time.
Thanks for listening toCommunicate, connect, grow, the
OSP Podcast.
Felicity Brand (19:05):
So, yeah, I guess there's no shortcuts with
simple.
It is difficult, but try.
Yeah, I got nothing.
Give it your best shot.
Jeffrey A. McGuire (19:21):
Keep it simple, stoney.
Keep it simple Super.
Keep it simple Sarah.
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