Review: ‘Writing for Busy Readers’

Writing for Busy Readers: Communicate More Effectively in the Real World by Todd Rogers and Jessica Lasky-Fink
Everyone is a writer, whether they know it or not. This book could improve emails, texts, white papers, Business Requirements documents, and Statements of Work. This book unwinds many of the techniques we learned in school. We are not paid by the amount of words we use. We do not need to hit a minimum word count. We do not need to “say what we are going to say, say what you want to say, and then say what you just said.” Instead, we must overcome a fundamental assumption: That people receiving this message will care as much about what you have to say as you do. It may sound not very empathetic, but it’s true. Time is precious, so get to the point. So, based on that change in perspective, the authors suggest Six fundamental principles:
- Less is More – use fewer words and ideas.
- Make Reading Easy – simplify the words and use shorter sentences.
- Design for easy navigation – make critical information immediately visible
- Use Enough formatting but no more – highlight, bold, or underline essential ideas
- Tell readers why they should care – answer “So what?” for the reader
- Make responding easy – simplify the steps to act/respond.
If you find that people don’t respond to your emails or that you can sometimes meander in your prose, we highly recommend Writing for Busy Readers.
BONUS: You should try their AI version of the book. Paste your email into the text box, and it will run your text through the book’s principles. It’s pretty addictive and effective.
To buy – click here.