Techniques for better communication

Activism for Reason, Rights, Reality
1

I have been thinking about how to make my writing more effective.

One of my ideas is to optimize cognitive load. By cognitive load, I mean the effort it takes to understand the ideas I want to convey. I want to maximize the informational density of my writing, but not so much that my reader cannot process it at a normal pace of reading.

Here are some things that might affect cognitive load:

  • Word length. Longer words take longer to identify, so I can improve my writing by using smaller words.
  • Ditto for sentence size and paragraph length.
  • Analogies and figures of speech require an unnecessary cross-reference, so they are also out.

I’ve also thought of some things that introduce distracting influences:

  • “Cue words” are abstract concepts that can trigger emotional responses and block rational analysis. For example, Obama’s latest speech contained “democracy”, “faith”, “reform”, “challenges”, “destiny”. (It’s OK to use these words when they are really necessary and placed in an unambiguous context.)
  • Group affiliations are another kind of trigger word – when a reader identifies the author as belonging to either his or an adverse group, it triggers a distracting emotional response.

What do you think?

(Many of my ideas come from George Orwell.)

2

Two thumbs up for the method. what is your writing about?

3

Capitalism for Dummies ?

Fully emotionally neutral vocabulary makes for boring writing. Reserve emotional vocabulary for deployment at the right spots.

Generally this is sound writing advice.

4

Two thumbs up for the method. what is your writing about?

The blog I plan to try my ideas on is http://oneminute.rationalmind.net/

5

I have been thinking about how to make my writing more effective.

One of my ideas is to optimize cognitive load. By cognitive load, I mean the effort it takes to understand the ideas I want to convey. I want to maximize the informational density of my writing, but not so much that my reader cannot process it at a normal pace of reading.

Here are some things that might affect cognitive load:

  • Word length. Longer words take longer to identify, so I can improve my writing by using smaller words.
  • Ditto for sentence size and paragraph length.
  • Analogies and figures of speech require an unnecessary cross-reference, so they are also out.

I’ve also thought of some things that introduce distracting influences:

  • “Cue words” are abstract concepts that can trigger emotional responses and block rational analysis. For example, Obama’s latest speech contained “democracy”, “faith”, “reform”, “challenges”, “destiny”. (It’s OK to use these words when they are really necessary and placed in an unambiguous context.)
  • Group affiliations are another kind of trigger word – when a reader identifies the author as belonging to either his or an adverse group, it triggers a distracting emotional response.

What do you think?

(Many of my ideas come from George Orwell.)

Do you want your writing to get read? If so, and this may sound odd, but hang out in the grocery store reading the National Enquirer. I would also study good advertising copywriters. People who make their living by getting people to read and respond to their writing - people like Dan Kennedy, as well as the late Gary Halbert, David Ogilvy, and Claude Hopkins.

I’m not sure you want to eliminate emotion altogether. You may get caught up in a reason/emotion dichotomy and lose your reader’s interest. I think for the most part, there are a lot of folks who like to feel connected to what they are reading - otherwise…why are they reading it? My educated guess is that it has something to do with the writer making the reader feel psychologically visible while the writer still conveys their ideas (which can be rational or irrational).