How to Eschew Obfuscation

And Write More Clearly

How to what the what?

Exactly.

Eschew means to avoid. Obfuscation is a funny-looking word that means confusion. The phrase “eschew obfuscation” is an ironic expression grammar geeks use to explain the need for clarity in writing. And it’s something most people don’t do vey well.

Often, we writers complicate tend to things. We learn a new word, try to work it into our writing and everyday conversation, and we fail. Most of the time, we do this to look smart, and it usually comes off producing the opposite effect. But what we really need is follow the wise example of Dr. Seuss’s Horton (from Horton Hears a Who):

"I meant what I said and I said what I meant!"

Let’s stop trying to impress and let’s learn to be more clear.

Here are some ways you can make your writing more understandable and less obfuscated:

1. Remove cliches

Cliches are overused expressions that are more intuitive for some than others. Most of the time, they’re unnecessary and only serve to take up space. They’re fluff. If you can remove the cliches in a piece and still make it work, you should One that always gets me is “at the end of the day...” If it’s too easy to use, and you assume the reader knows what you mean, it just might be redundant and unnecessary. At the end of the day, cliches just don’t add much to your writing.

Here are some others:

• “The bottom line is…”

• “There’s no place like home…”

• “This flies in the face of…”

Remove as many of these as possible. The bottom line is they’re not as clear as you might think. And they often fly in the face of what makes for good writing. ;)

2. Eradicate redundancies

This is something I am guilty of. I like being emphatic. Typically, I'lll write a 900-word blog post, realize I said the same thing more than once, and cut it down to fewer than 700. I'm doing that with this post right now.

A redundancy is an unnecessary repetition. It's saying the same thing more than once. Saying the same thing more than once is redundant. It's redundant.

See what I did there? ;)

Only repeat yourself when you really need to make a point. Otherwise, your message loses its effect.

3. Write to your audience

When you willingly use a word that doesn't fit your audience (because you like or for whatever reason), you're failing as a communicator.

The point of cool words like "eschew" is to use them when no other is appropriate. Don't use your vocabulary to impress or intimidate; use it only to communicate.

In order to do that, you need to understand your audience. You need to know how they talk, what they like to read, and what words they're used to. And you need to serve them.

Don't write over their heads; that's pointless.

4. Practice brevity

Pull a Hemingway and embrace the value of terseness. If you can say it in fewer words, do it.

For some communicators (like me), this is a discipline. In many ways, it's what you're going for with all of the aforementioned. As a final editing checkpoint, make sure you reread your work, editing out stuff that just doesn't need to be there.

More often than not, you can say more with less. Try it.