Effective Writing

When I worked an in-office job, I listened to 1 hour of podcasts on the daily work commute. When the pandemic started and I worked from home, I lost my podcast time and then kind of stopped listening. Since then, my podcast listening was mostly random and confined to one of my favorites-- Seth Godin's Akimbo podcast (highly recommend.)

To be honest, current events around the world that I don't understand well got me back into podcasts. I started listening to a New York Times opinion podcast, which led me to surfing around other podcasts I would find interesting. And since then, I've never been more excited to be listening to all of this incredible content being produced daily and weekly.

I'll update this series weekly. Most of the time I will share podcasts related to marketing, business, culture, economics, history, and personal growth. Occasionally I'll also recommend books to read or shows/movies/videos to watch.

Every week, I'll choose a piece of content to feature at the bottom of this post. Don't miss it!

1. *How to write things that busy people will actually read (w/ Todd Rogers ) TED Fixable podcast with Anne + Frances
2. A flavorful field guide to foraging (w/ Alexis Nikole Nelson ) TED Health podcast
3. Overcoming toxic positivity (w/ Susan David, Ph.D. ) TED Re:Thinking with Adam Grant

• Bonus: How niche brands got into your supermarket NPR The Indicator from Planet Money

Feature: How to write things that busy people will actually read (w/ Todd Rogers) TED Fixable podcast with Anne + Frances

This podcast was unexpected for me. Not only was it full of helpful information, but it also was easy to listen to and not too serious. If you are looking for a new podcast in the business space, I highly recommend you start following this one.

So let's get into it.

Todd Rogers is the author of a new book called Writing for Busy Readers. In the book, Rogers persuades us to become better at writing by being effective writers. He has six principles for us to follow in order to do that.

In his conversation with Anne and Frances on the podcast, Rogers talks about how we often conflate good writing with effective writing. At the heart of it all, a writer must be keep the reader top of mind. If a reader doesn't read what we send, Rogers argues, then its our fault. And this radical accountability with our writing can unlock more connections with our readers.

The six principles are the following:

1. Less is more. Fewer words, fewer ideas, and fewer requests. The more you add to your writing, the more likely your reader will leave.
2. Make reading easy. Use shorter sentences and more common words.
3. Design for easy navigation. Make it easy for people to find what they're looking for when they're scanning/skimming.
4. Use enough formatting but no more. Bold, underline, italicize, and highlight. But use purposefully.
5. Tell reader why they should care. Be clear in why the reader is reading your writing. This is kind and helpful to the reader.
6. Make responding easy. Reduce friction between you and the reader. Simplify.

I really enjoyed this episode. It was really refreshing to hear Todd talk about how we can all be more effective writers, no matter our academic writing level. When we are simple, clear, direct, and thoughtful towards the reader, then we are setting the reader up for success. And that helps us spread our ideas, make sales, and win over readers.