Over one weekend when I was at university, I read the set text over and over. I took it to the café where I worked and read it on break. I read it again Sunday at home. And still I couldn’t understand it.
I was in second year university. This was one of the more philosophical classes and I was struggling. This text was written by a leading theorist. That I couldn’t understand this short essay made me feel even worse.
A few of us got together before class that Monday. None of us could make sense of the text. I felt a little better.
When we mentioned it to the lecturer – a brilliant woman we all respected – she said that it was the author’s fault we couldn’t understand it. We shouldn’t feel bad because we couldn’t get the message. And the text was never mentioned again.
I have worked with authors who wrote the way they thought author’s should write. They were trying to show off. The language was out dated. The words were twisted and nothing like how they spoke. The sentences did nothing to convey the story or message.
People read to connect with a story. Or they read to learn. They talk about the story with friends because it connects with them. They see themselves in the text. Or they’ve learnt something important from reading it.
Rarely has someone sat down with a friend over coffee and gushed over complicated sentences they couldn’t understand.
Writing should be about clear communication of ideas. There’s no need to make the reader think they’re too dumb for your book.