What’s the most important quality of good business writing? I’d wager that ‘clarity’ would come top in any survey trying to answer that question. Which made me think…
Clarity is an essential quality for so much communication. But I always want more. Clear communication does a job but the job is limited. We don’t necessarily want our words to do exactly what it says on the tin. Because words can reach deeper inside us, can find emotions and express them with personality, make a persuasive case that leads us to do something. The benefits of purely rational clarity can leave you wanting more.
It was interesting this week when I was doing some one-to-one coaching at The Writer for a client from the professional services world. There’s a sector that places a high value on ‘clarity’ even if it consistently obscures clarity with jargon, acronyms and abstract nouns. I asked my client to write about the God of Clarity. She responded brilliantly by writing “The God of Clarity is called Sunshine”. Sunshine throws light on objects that are obscured, removes darkness when you can’t see to the essence of what you want to convey.
This made me feel much more positive about clarity. It’s a good example of the power of metaphor. It makes clear too that there is rational and emotional clarity. Often it’s emotional clarity – perhaps achieved by metaphor – that really shines a light on difficult meaning.
All this makes me realise too that I’ve never been entirely clear, with you or myself, about the purpose of these blog posts. What am I trying to achieve?
They come from an honest desire, quite a long way through my career, to pass on knowledge, experience and insight to other writers. We can all learn from each other. There were no blogs around when I was first making my way in writing. Think of the blog as an oasis on your working journey, a place to stop for writing refreshment once a week.
