"Critical thinking is the road to clear writing. It enables us to express ourselves precisely. It is not enough to write so we can be understood. We must write so that we cannot possibly be misunderstood."

Think Clearly/Write It Right

Let’s face it. Good writing is tough. Nobody expects us to be skilled brain surgeons or have the thorough knowledge of law that lawyers have. Yet,we’re all expected somehow to have the same skills professional writers have, even though most of us are not professional writers. Writing under these circumstances can be intimidating, frustrating, and difficult.

But writing effectively doesn’t have to be an elusive goal. Good writing is not strings of lengthy, convoluted, complicated sentences intertwined like spaghetti in a bowl. Clear writing is simple writing. (Not simplistic, simple.) It’s a matter of knowing what we mean to say and then saying it.

Most unclear writing is caused by unclear thinking. Solutions to most problems, including those in writing, are solved by looking sharply at something that’s been staring you in the face all the time. Critical thinking includes skills and processes that help us overcome writing obstacles and avoid those all-too-common unwarranted assumptions that lead to bad writing. If we can learn to think critically, we will write clearly.

Clear thinking works, whether we’re looking at the forest or the trees. The big-picture writing goals can be achieved if we begin by thinking through, analytically, what our purpose is and who our audience is. Have you ever thought, "I don’t have anything to say"? Chances are there’s a glitch in your thinking. It’s quite likely your purpose is too broad or vague, and what you really are facing is the frustration of having too much to say. Narrow your purpose. Then write it down. That way you’ll know whether you really know it. Remember, the reader can’t be clear if the writer isn’t.

"I don’t know how to begin" is the "snow blindness" syndrome we all face at some point. We look at the white page or blank screen and it stays that way: we can’t see a thing. What’s the glitch in our thinking process here? Simply that we’ve been pre-conditioned to think that we have to start at the beginning. But we don’t. Writing is linear, but thinking is random and pictorial. The brain wants to examine the whole forest at once. Let it. Write down, as fast as you can, whatever flies by before you forget it. Later, go back and put it in linear order so the reader can follow it. You’ll probably find you have too much, not too little, information. What a pleasant frustration having to decide for a change what to leave out instead of agonizing over what more to put in. Know how the brain thinks, and use what you know to your advantage.

The critical-thinking forest is filled with learnable lessons: selecting the order and flow of ideas, recognizing common reasoning errors, distinguishing between warranted and unwarranted assumptions, constructing effective arguments, avoiding logical fallacies. But there are also the trees.

A little sentence logic goes a long way in making sure that the message the reader receives is precisely the one we sent. Consider the following sentence: "Tourists who want to see beautiful fish snorkel though the coral reefs." Confused at first? Who’s doing the snorkeling here, the tourists or the fish? If we simply add a comma after "fish," the reader then clearly understands it’s not the aquatic inhabitants that have those funny-looking tubes on their heads.

Now try this: "After defoliating millions of acres of trees each year, scientists finally have found ways to control the Gypsy moth caterpillar." Did those nasty scientists really chew on all those leaves? Probably not. Try your luck at correctly repositioning the misplaced modifier to clearly state what really happened.

SHOES ARE REQUIRED TO EAT IN THIS CAFETERIA.

Below it, someone had written:

I rest my case.