note from the editor: Here’s a post from Erin that acts as a pretty good follow up to Wes’s post on the need for clarity. The post is originally from October at Erin’s personal blog. Erin thought the points are still classically relevant, though, and worth a re-post here.

- Ashley Imsand, Assistant Editor

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Have you ever started to read an article or something and finished the first paragraph only to realize that you didn’t comprehend any of it and you have to read it through several more times before it makes any sense? Or have you ever come across a really long sentence that was so incredibly long that you had to go back and read it again, from beginning to end, just to make sure that it really was just one sentence? (Yeah, like those two.) Or how about an article that is so complex over half the words require you to whip out a dictionary? For me, all this takes too much time and brain power.

Now, as a student, it’s normal for me to encounter things I don’t understand. So I read it, research it, embrace it - I am supposed to be learning here! That requires me to spend more time on things. However, “more time” is something that professionals don’t have much of. So when trying to reach these people with written messages, PR people need to be simple and concise.

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