Assuming knowledge of your reader comes off as you not knowing the words you're using

2025-01-21

If you're going to use terminology that abstracts what you're talking about, you hide what you're trying to say to some readers.

The less clear you are about what you're talking about, the more your writing comes off as ignorant at best, and pretentious at worst. Writing is not about showing off how smart you are. Writing is about communication. Having less clarity in your writing means it is not conveying information well. It's confusing and easy to misunderstand.

Another form ...

Annotating a text is like having a conversation

2025-01-21

Annotating as if you are having a conversation with the author or the text itself is a better way to process a book. It is much more engaging than underlining and highlighting quotes. This is because you can better remember things by [[Learning & Elaboration|elaborating]]. Elaborating while reading a text gives you a break from reading and an opportunity to check-in with yourself - see if you're understand.

Even more importantly, [[Asking Questions to Use for Self-Quizzing Increas...

Add context to a topic to make it more specific

2025-01-21

If your topic is manga, for example, you can add a time variable, person variable, genre variable, target audience variable, etc. An example of this could be: with a topic like manga/anime, we could choose to discuss the thematic differences between each version of lupin III distinguished by the color of the jacket. Or even more specifically how each Lupin III color behaved towards women in their respective series.

Keeping your research topics specific is how you can fit essays into sm...

Accommodate for your wide variety of readers

2025-01-21

Sharing your writing on the public internet means you will have a diverse group of readers.

• People that like to visualize data
• People who are familiar with the jargon / people who are not
• People who are familiar with your topic / people who are not

Approach your writing as if every single type of person you can imagine reading your work is actually reading your work. What information would they need further explanation on? How would the structure o...