Respond to expected criticism.

If you present your ideas well, most readers will agree with you. However, some won’t, and they may have valid reasons for disagreeing. To earn their agreement, you have to think like they think. You have to address their criticisms. This is part of understanding your readers.

When writing, ask yourself, “What reasons will my readers have for disagreeing with me?”

I recommend that you list those reasons. Then, you have two strategies for addressing them. First, you can address those criticisms directly. For example, you might write, “While the argument can be made that . . . , in fact . . . .” Although this strategy works, you might seem as if you expect criticism (which you do) and are insecure about your ideas.

Second, you can revise, expand, and strengthen your arguments and rationale so that those criticisms are not possible. This is the more difficult, but more effective, strategy.

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This is the strategy for day 124 in 300 Days of Better Writing, available at Hostile Editing in PDF, Kindle, and paperback formats.

For a sample of 300 Days of Better Writing and other books by Precise Edit, download the free ebook.

Express yourself confidently.

Another way to say this is “Don’t hedge.” Phrases such as “I think that,” “I assume,” “I believe,” and “It’s possible that” tell the reader that you are not confident in what you are saying. If you are not confident in your ideas, your reader will not be confident in your authority to make whatever statement you are making.

On the other hand, if you have a good reason for your idea, state the idea with confidence. Consider this sentence:

“I think cantaloupe is good for your health.”

As a reader, I can say, “Do you think so, or do you know so? If that is only your opinion, I can ignore it.” To encourage the reader to believe you, you can write, instead,

“Cantaloupe is good for your health.”

Confident writing is stronger, more active, more believable, and more likely to get the reader response you desire.

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Use negative/positive restatement for emphasis.

Positive/negative restatement means describing what something is, then describing what it isn’t—or vice versa. When you do this, you strongly emphasize the final description. Let’s look at some examples.

“Although you think you are strong, you are weak compared to him.”

“Freedom is not the absence of responsibility towards others. It is the acceptance of responsibility for yourself.”

“She was more than beautiful. She was a goddess.”

As you can see from these examples, we described each subject twice (restatement). First we gave a faulty description, and then we replaced it with a true description (negative/positive). In this way, we’re saying, “It’s not this. It’s that.” The final statement will carry heavy emphasis, provoking an emotional and cognitive response, which contributes to the reader’s remembrance.

You can write several such expressions in a series to create increasing impact. Whether you use one expression or several in a series, don’t use this strategy again until the impact has had time to wear off, which might be pages later, if ever.

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This is the strategy for day 293 in 300 Days of Better Writing, available at Hostile Editing in PDF, Kindle, and paperback formats.

For a sample of 300 Days of Better Writing and other books by Precise Edit, download the free ebook.

Be prepared to work hard at your writing.

Easy reading is damned hard writing.

(Nathaniel Hawthorne)

(Please excuse the curse word. It may indicate Hawthorne’s frustration with the work necessary to produce good writing, or it may indicate the strength with which Hawthorne believes this.)

The point of this quote is that clear, easy-to-read writing is not easy to produce. Instead, it is the result of writing, analyzing what you write, and re-writing—perhaps many times.

When you write, you are attempting to communicate. The more work you put into writing, the better you will be able to communicate. Hard work by you leads to easy understanding by your reader.

People have told me, “Writing is so easy for you.” This isn’t true. I have practiced writing, studied writing, and analyzed what makes writing clear. The documents they read are the result of much work: writing, criticizing, and rewriting until they are “easy reading.” That’s what great writers aim for: not easy writing but easy reading.

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This is the strategy for day 110 in 300 Days of Better Writing, available at Hostile Editing in PDF, Kindle, and paperback formats.

For a sample of 300 Days of Better Writing and other books by Precise Edit, download the free ebook.