Interlude: Curses, Lay Titles, and Poor Writing
What is the greatest contributor to poor writing?
According to Steven Pinker, author of The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century, the greatest contributor to poor writing is the curse of knowledge.
"The curse of knowledge is the single best explanation I know of why good people write bad prose. It simply doesn't occur to the writer that her readers don't know what she knows—that they haven't mastered the patois of her guild, can't divine the missing steps that seem too obvious to mention, have no way to visualize a scene that to her is as clear as day."
The curse of knowledge is a difficulty imagining what it is like for someone to not know what you know. And what's worse is that the curse of knowledge also prevents you from noticing that it is affecting your writing. And without awareness of the problem, you cannot fix it.
So how can you overcome the curse of knowledge? You might be tempted to just send your writing to a colleague or another expert in your field to review. But they may have the same curse of knowledge as you.
I think that the most valuable way is to work with a professional editor. A skilled editor will help you identify when the curse of knowledge seeps into your writing.
But you can also take a break from your writing (at least a few days). Sometimes that time will give you enough distance to see how your writing can be improved.
What strategies do you have for overcoming the curse of knowledge?
Now onto this week's round-up...
💌 Round-up
👓 Reading
What makes an effective lay title for a clinical trial?
"The results...highlighted several shortcomings of the assessed lay titles:
72% did not include all recommended elements, compromising their ability to convey essential trial information.
73% contained specialist language, making them less meaningful to potential trial participants.
51% were deemed inadequate, indicating a failure to effectively inform readers."
Scientists used ChatGPT to generate an entire paper from scratch — but is it any good?
"A pair of scientists has produced a research paper in less than an hour with the help of ChatGPT... The article was fluent, insightful and presented in the expected structure for a scientific paper, but researchers say that there are many hurdles to overcome before the tool can be truly helpful."
🧰 Tools
Pexels
Are you looking for free images or videos to use in your presentations, articles, or social media posts? Pexels is a website with a huge database of free stock photos, royalty free images, and videos.
💬 Quote
"Poor writing transfers the work from the writer to the reader. Good writing, on the other hand, nearly reads itself, allowing the reader to spend more time thinking about the ideas than pulling out meaning." — Shane Parrish, Brain Food
📝 Challenge
The next time you review your draft, look for common culprits of the curse of knowledge: jargon, abbreviations, and technical vocabulary.
Thank you so much for reading.
Warmly,
Crystal
