Six years ago, I got a phone call that changed my life. I was working in West Palm Beach, Florida as a news producer and nearing the end of my 3-year contract. An Executive Producer (EP) at a news station in Washington, DC asked if I had any interest in working in the nation’s capital. I immediately said yes and then we started talking about the newscast I would inherit. I remember his description of the format and writing style of the show. He said “we want viewers to feel like Lesli [the anchor] is in their living room.” In their living room? That seemed way too casual. In journalism school, we learn that writing for broadcast means writing conversationally, but I didn’t think that meant putting the anchor’s personality on full display. To be honest, writing like this was refreshing. Saying goodbye to those cliche news phrases (this just in, let’s get right to it, fled on foot, etc.) and really learning how to communicate to people, in a natural and authentic way, transformed my writing. For the first time in my career I prioritized the audience.
Keeping the audience at the forefront is critical in writing, no matter the platform. As my former EP used to say, we live in a city with so much noise so it is important to stand out. If people can’t relate to the content in front of them they’ll tune out. We know that humans’ attention spans are short so being able to spark interest from the content we produce isn’t easy. While writing for broadcast certainly had its challenges— writing for the web is even more difficult because people have a tendency to skim. Screens encourage this type of behavior which makes us read more quickly and less deeply (Konnikova, 2014). One of the best ways to combat skimming is to put yourself in the reader’s shoes. Think about how they would speak, their views, their background and channel that voice. Connecting with the audience in terms of the webpage’s aesthetic is also important. There are key guidelines for this, which include limiting column width and adding credibility through high quality images and hyperlinks to outside sources (justread).
One of the other major turn-offs for readers is this concept of the Curse of Knowledge — or the cognitive bias that makes it difficult for us to connect with our audience. Have you ever heard the theory that sometimes the smartest people don’t make the best teachers? That’s because they assume that their audience knows everything that they know (Pinker, 2014). This can be dangerous, especially for companies that are trying to persuade people to buy their product. They may know that their product is superior to their competitors, but if they cannot communicate that properly, the average buyer won’t know the difference. One of the best ways to correct the Curse of Knowledge is to seek feedback on your writing. Steven Pinker writes in his article The Source of Bad Writing: “Only when we ask those people do we discover what’s obvious to us, isn’t obvious to them.”
Let’s face it— writing is hard. Writing to a specific audience is even harder, but it makes for more effective and impactful content. In order to achieve this, writers need get to know their audience through research, interviews, focus groups, etc. or just simply listen to what they have to say. Then they can take that information and channel the audience voice when they sit down to write.
Works Cited
16 rules of blog writing and layout. which ones are you breaking?. 16 Rules of Blog Writing and Layout. Which Ones Are You Breaking? | Just Read. (n.d.). https://justread.link/g43RhVlI7
Konnikova, M. (2014, July 16). Being a better online reader. The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/science/maria-konnikova/being-a-better-online-reader
Pinker, S. (2014, September 25). The Source of Bad Writing. stevenpinker.com. https://stevenpinker.com/files/pinker/files/the_source_of_bad_writing_-_wsj_0.pdf
Allison Lucas 