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I absolutely agree with this, and will add that one thing I do is have other people read it and see what they think and if there is any confusion at all I don't

by saurik 4y ago

I absolutely agree with this, and will add that one thing I do is have other people read it and see what they think and if there is any confusion at all I don't ever chalk it up to the reader or just try to get them to understand: I try to edit my article to prevent that mistake from ever having been conceived of; too many people are just like "engh: that's just one opinion and a bunch of other people got it" without realizing how their test readership likely has a sampling bias or that 1/10 is actually really bad.

fwlr 4y ago
I do this too and it’s very helpful. Just be aware that anything the reader tells you is necessarily going though another round of brain->text->eyeballs->brain. Read their response carefully, lest your brain smudge their words enough to simply pattern-match it back to your original idea.
SamoyedFurFluff 4y ago
I will forewarn against following this advice blindly however, because it heavily relies on your audience. Any mature writer should on some level conceive of a precise population of consumers for their work and write to that population, and indeed say “eugh that’s an irrelevant opinion” to people outside of their audience. This is also referred to as having authorial intent or voice. Writing a technical analysis of a very strange bug doesn’t necessarily need to highlight that this isn’t entomology!
- saurik 4y ago
  Relatedly, soon after I wrote that comment, I thought "I wonder if someone is going to think I meant random people whom weren't even in my audience, as opposed to only people I wanted to read my article in the first place", but then I was driving and it was just a comment and I was like "engh"... the next day, I come back to your comment feeling a need to correct me, and so I should have probably pulled over because these feelings really aren't something to ignore.

by saurik 4y ago

fwlr 4y ago

I do this too and it’s very helpful. Just be aware that anything the reader tells you is necessarily going though another round of brain->text->eyeballs->brain. Read their response carefully, lest your brain smudge their words enough to simply pattern-match it back to your original idea.

SamoyedFurFluff 4y ago

I will forewarn against following this advice blindly however, because it heavily relies on your audience. Any mature writer should on some level conceive of a precise population of consumers for their work and write to that population, and indeed say “eugh that’s an irrelevant opinion” to people outside of their audience. This is also referred to as having authorial intent or voice. Writing a technical analysis of a very strange bug doesn’t necessarily need to highlight that this isn’t entomology!

saurik 4y ago
Relatedly, soon after I wrote that comment, I thought "I wonder if someone is going to think I meant random people whom weren't even in my audience, as opposed to only people I wanted to read my article in the first place", but then I was driving and it was just a comment and I was like "engh"... the next day, I come back to your comment feeling a need to correct me, and so I should have probably pulled over because these feelings really aren't something to ignore.