Being Clear

My first rule of writing is that the writing must be clear. That means (easily) understandable, lucid, giving light. You might think of other synonyms. One way writing might miss this mark is by addressing the wrong readership. Here’s an example of writing to two readerships, from the RealClimate newsletter. They’re quoting a paper by climatologists addressed to their peers.

The relative importance of these effects in model simulations is likely to depend on model resolution and the representation of small-scale physical processes that are not explicitly resolved by today’s global climate models.

Okaaay… What’s the point? What does it mean? Here’s the same info addressed to an interested lay readership:

In other words, the projection of future storm tracks is highly sensitive to aspects that are not so accurately quantified by the global climate models. This high sensitivity gives rise to a well-understood source of uncertainty connected to the way a global warming affects the mid-latitudes and the storm tracks. These effects are pronounced for the locations that already are affected by a storm tracks or where future storm tracks will end up.

And if you read that at home and said “Hmmm,” and your spouse said “Hmm what?” you might respond with:

They say it’s really hard to tell where storms will go in Europe.

So. All three statements are true and accurate, but they’re meaningful to different readerships. Careful consideration of who your readers are is extremely important if you want to be successful when you explain something in writing.