An editor asked me to modify a paragraph in a recent short story – I tried to make a joke of the use of a female name for a hurricane, only I confused my readers. In my story “Hurricane Yvonne” was wreaking havoc, the heroine is angry at “that slut Yvonne” for coming to town. Big fail, thankfully caught and corrected.
If you have to explain what you meant to your readers, then you failed to communicate a clear thought. Remember that you are not going to be sitting next to a reader to clarify your meanings as they thumb through your article, story or book. Sure, YOU know what you meant, make sure THEY understand it too.
Know who your target audience is if you are making references to things like popular TV shows, common slang, technical terminology, ethic specific items, or political slogans. The statement “as touching as John-John’s salute” would have much more impact on those who watched JFK’s funeral services in 1963 than a young adult born in the mid-80’s.
Spelling and punctuation can change the meaning of a sentence, so can the order of the words. “The woman wearing a red dress was stopped by the man; The man stopped the woman wearing a red dress.”….think about it. How about – “Woman, without her man, is nothing.” or “Woman, without her, man is nothing.” One more – “It was passed.” or “It was past.” Watch those inadvertent typos and misquotes – “Music soothes the savage breast.” (correct) or “Music soothes the savage beast.”
Put your completed manuscript off to the side for a day or so. When you pick it up to begin your edits, don’t read it through from the beginning because it is too easy for your mind’s anticipation to overpower your eye’s interpretation. Since you know what you intended to say you are less likely to see errors on the page. Allowing a trusted friend or a critique partner to read your work gives you a second set of eyes without the predetermined knowledge of what you intended to say.
Generally shorter, concise sentences are less confusing. Use a separate sentence for each major thought. Using lengthy and often uncommon words in order to impress your readers may make your meaning less clear; also using a complicated vocabulary increases the chances of choosing a word with a different meaning than intended. Choose the correct tense for your words as well as the correct homonym (word with the same spelling or sound) like meat and meet.
Writing with clarity will help you to get those intended thoughts and messages across.
Writing exercise: Use each word in a separate sentence: meat, meet, met, thong, tong, tongue, male, mail, ten, tense, tents, their, there, me, my, mine, lose, loose, for, four, forge, forage, right, write
Writing prompt: Check out today’s newspaper and only read the headlines. How many headlines can you pick out that seem ambiguous? Can you rewrite them to make them clearer?
