A little more clarity, please

You may want to re-think the next thumbs-up emoji you send, as it could be interpreted as a binding agreement.

A Canadian court recently ruled that the universal symbol can affirm that a person is officially entering into a contract.

The case questioned whether a farmer had agreed to sell 87 metric tons of flax to a grain buyer. The buyer had signed the contract and texted a photo of it to the farmer, who had responded by texting back a thumbs-up emoji.

The court ended up agreeing with the buyer and the judge ordered the farmer to pay damages of 82,200 Canadian dollars.

All over the casual use of an emoji.

It reminds us that clarity in your communication, or lack of, can have serious consequences.

Clear writing that makes its point or purpose unmistakable and provides the reader with the appropriate amount of detail is strong writing.

Vague writing often leaves the reader with more questions than answers.

Clarity also makes your writing more convincing. This is important when your goal is to put forward an argument or persuade your reader to take a certain action.

Now, at A Thousand Monkeys, we know that clarity in writing takes practice, but here are a few rules of thumb to keep in mind:

• Aim for short words and simple sentences to make your text more readable
• ?Use specific language and examples
• ?Get rid of vague or ambiguous language and filler words
• ?Give just enough information to make your point: too little leaves the reader with questions, and too much obscures your purpose.

Readability is the first step in making your writing as clear as possible, and readability scores are a quick way of checking how easy your copy will be to digest. Find out more in our complete guide to readability