Codex, gesso, quires? Cut Down on Confusion

I was reading a book recently and it started to annoy me. The author failed several times to define terms that were unknown to me, and I presume, unknown to many readers. For example:

• codex
• gesso
• quires

If you know what all of those mean, then I suppose you can just stop reading right now.

I enjoy learning new vocab while I’m reading books. But if I have to look up three different words all in one paragraph, that, to me, says the author (and editor) erred. Part of a writer’s job is to make it easy for their readers to understand what’s being written about.

Guess what? I stopped reading.

This failure to clear up uncommon words occurred so frequently in this book that it, in part, led to me putting the book down unfinished.

It’s so crucial to explain terms that may be unknown or confusing to your audience, no matter what field you’re in. It’s also not that hard. We communicators have so many options at our disposal:

• Use commas, em dashes or parentheses.
• Take advantage of call-out boxes.
• Code in pop-up definitions within web content.
• Let images with labels help out.
• Start with a list of unfamiliar terms at beginning of piece.
• End with a glossary.

Of course, not all of these strategies will work for every item you communicate, but that’s the beauty of it — there are choices!

Keep this in mind next time you’re writing. Do your audience a favor and make it easy for them to keep reading. Why would you want a reason for them to put down that material you worked so hard to create?

(Reach out if you want to know the book I returned to the library unfinished. I don’t want to disparage the author publicly. She’s well regarded. I’ve heard good things about her work. The book might actually be really good. It just didn’t work for me when I picked it up.)

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