Three articles fundraisers and other authors should read to improve their writing

“Clarity trumps persuasion,” MECLABS president Flint McGlaughlin reminds audiences at his seminars.

Yet too often, writing lacks any clarity at all, and we find ourselves unable to comprehend an author’s point–in no small part because of his impenetrable jargon and (perhaps inadvertent) obfuscation.

During one recent lecture I attended, the speaker went on at length about his firm’s “overseas entities” and how his customers “leveraged” this or that. Even the business school students he was addressing had a hard time puzzling out his real meaning.

This problem is particularly acute in non-profit writing. Those who market non-profits to the wider world, including fundraisers, often fall into the trap of writing material their audiences fail to understand.

Fortunately, the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation has assembled an insightful and highly amusing series of three articles by Tony Proscio to help non-profit writers (and anyone else) identify and root out jargon and improve clarity.

In the third and final booklet (link in PDF), Proscio synthesizes his argument:

Whenever I set out to write anything—and almost anytime I start to read anything more demanding than a cereal box—I find myself asking the two questions I’ve described here: Who’s supposed to do what to whom with how much? and* What are we against?* These are not the kinds of questions taught in great writing courses. They do not necessarily lead to more beautiful writing, if that is judged by aesthetic standards alone. But they have one overwhelming virtue that too much of today’s public-interest writing sorely lacks: They lead to the kind of information that nearly everyone wants and needs to know.

What techniques do you use to maintain clarity in your writing?