Why Writing is Thinking
There are compelling reasons for your business to care about clear writing. The first is communication: when you write, you want to be understood by others. The second is reputation: by effectively communicating even complex ideas in clear and concise language, people will trust your business as a reputable source.
But there’s another, more basic reason. In writing, we communicate ideas to others, but we also make them more clear to ourselves. To think clearly, you need to express thoughts clearly.
A Mathematician’s Lesson
“The thought, in itself imperceptible by the senses, gets clothed in the perceptible garb of a sentence, and thereby we are enabled to grasp it. ”
Mathematicians learned this lesson the hard way. While mathematical equations are today held up as a model of clarity, it wasn’t always like this. Most of the special symbols you see in a college-level math textbook were only developed in the past few centuries.
Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz independently developed calculus, but their own way of writing about it, littered with vague talk of “infinitesimally small quantities”, left a lot to be desired. The math worked wonderfully, but by the 1800s, it was becoming clear that confused writing and terminology was preventing progress, making calculus harder to understand, teach, and generalize.
The solution was to get clearer about language. Over the course of the 19th century, mathematicians such as Cauchy, Weierstrass, and Riemann introduced new words, symbols, and definitions that let them leave behind confusing talk about the “infinitely small”. This did more than just make calculus more clear: the more precise way of writing ended up leading to whole new branches of mathematics, such as measure theory and set theory. Some mathematicians interested in the foundations of the field even created whole new symbolic languages to make concepts as clear as possible.
Frege’s definition of the ancestral relation in an artificial symbolic language.
By the turn of the 20th century, some philosophers, impressed by the success of clear language in mathematics, began to see the clarification of language as a potential tool for tackling even non-mathematical problems. They believed that conceptual confusions in physics, ethics, and philosophy would disappear once a sufficiently clear way of thinking was found.
Of course, this approach has its limits. Clear language alone can’t solve all of a businesses problems, after all. But by making thoughts clearer, it can improve decision making and foster trust.
What Would George Say?
That’s all pretty abstract. But what mathematicians discovered over a century ago has important practical implications.
George Orwell, one of the 20th century’s greatest writers, was also a fierce advocate of clear language. He criticized the belief that “language is a natural growth and not an instrument which we shape for our own purposes.” He also insisted that “the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts.”
Driven by this belief, Orwell proposed several principles for avoiding ambiguity in writing. Our writing should be jargon-free where possible, we should avoid reusing common but unclear metaphors, and we should cut unnecessary words to keep things concise.
While Orwell primarily critiqued the journalism and politics of his own time, his principles remain strikingly relevant today. Let's consider a contemporary example and explore how applying them can improve clarity.
“NFT technology is revolutionizing digital communication and asset ownership. Cryptocurrency, through immutable on-chain verification processes and smart contracts, created a unique and completely trustless environment for peer-to-peer transactions. Forget about stingy middlemen stealing money to facilitate purchases and trades; code and nodes will handle it.
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This might look clear at first glance. But in many pieces on NFTs, ordinary words are used in ways that have become common but potentially misleading. Take "smart" contracts: are they truly effective replacements for usual contracts, or simply a new name for bits of program on a blockchain? What makes something "revolutionary" within a technology which is still to find widespread practical use? And when phrases like "completely trustless" get thrown around, do they obscure important questions about real-world trust and the legal significance of NFT "ownership"? These questions matter, especially in an industry rife with scams and prone to individual and collective collapses.
The issue at hand isn’t some unique flaw of NFTs. Good writing is just good business. Before publishing writing, you should ask yourself the same questions a skeptical investor would. Can your claims withstand scrutiny? Does your content build trust and carry authority, or simply rely on buzzwords to deflect legitimate concerns? When you write with this level of accountability, your work will hold up under scrutiny from competitors, and increase the reputation of your business.
As George Orwell said “unless you make a conscious effort to prevent it, the existing dialect will come rushing in and do the job for you.” It’s crucial to find a new way to use words before old, potentially misleading ones, use you.
Putting It Into Practice
Clear language is an aid to clear thinking, and businesses that realize this can use it to their advantage.
Writing is a means of communication, and a business must communicate effectively in order to thrive. When relating to customers, investors, and other businesses, trust is essential. Vague language can make others ill-at-ease.
Following Orwell, your business should be choosy about what words it uses. Using particular phrases or terms is important for branding, but content writers should know how to explain them clearly and with relevant examples.
One watchword is consistency. Whether it’s an email, a presentation, a web page, or a blog, it’s important to get writers on the same page when it comes to describing your business or product. This cuts down on confusion: your blog won’t make sense to potential consumers if those who write different posts use different terminology. Consistent use of terminology across all channels, from emails to blog posts, ensures clarity and keeps potential consumers from getting lost. A concise and clear content brief can help here.
Your house writing style is different from your company’s core values. The writing style is the tool, and keeping your company’s content aligned with its core values is the goal. But writing clearly can help you think more carefully about your core values as well. Articulating these values through clear language not only builds trust with customers but also guides internal decision-making.
Outfitting Your Thoughts
Gottlob Frege said that thoughts were clothed in writing. It’s good if this clothing is appealing, but it should also be sturdy and tailored for purpose. For thoughts to not only stand out but make an impact, they need to be dressed in the most effective writing your content team can offer.
Writing shouldn’t be an afterthought. When done right, clearly expressing yourself is part of clear thinking. While clear writing alone might not conjure your next great new product idea, it undoubtedly serves as a powerful tool to guide you towards it..
