Making Your Writing “Accessible”

Making your writing accessible to readers is arguably the most important quality for an author to remember. When we say “accessible”, we mean “readable and understandable”, rather than “obtainable”.

Joyce’s “Finnegans Wake”, one of the most inaccessible books of all time.

Far too many authors, especially of non-fiction, fall into a mode of self-indulgence when writing, or of trying to show off the vastness of their learning and research. Modern scholarship favors a writing style that informs the reader in a clear, crisp manner. After all, the goal of your book is to help readers understand your subject better.

With this in mind, we offer several tips on how to make sure your book is accessible to a reader who is a non-expert in your subject.

• Don’t assume that your readers are as well-read as you are. Unless you are writing a book for a very small coterie of people, keep in mind that that the casual reader has not done as much research as you have.
• Make sure to include dates. When referring to historical figures, always give their birth and death dates. This helps your reader to know more about their relevance to the context. Remember to also include the dates for historical events.
• Don’t make allusions to tons of other works, particularly obscure ones. If you must make an allusion, make sure to give the reader some knowledge about that text. Readers don’t want to be referring to Wikipedia constantly.
• Use only one language throughout the text. Authors sometimes like to demonstrate their linguistic flair via stating something in a different language, especially a witticism, though there’s no point in doing this if readers don’t know that language. Keep your Latin epigrams to yourself.
• Further to the point above, avoid the overuse of long, polysyllabic words and lengthy sentences. Again, your goal is to communicate information and to thereby educate the reader.

J.R.R. Tolkien

While fiction has a bit more flexibility, keep in mind that vagueness and confusion will alienate readers. The classic example of what not to do is James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake, written in self-indulgent drivel, and widely regarded as a selfish joke for the author’s own amusement – not to mention a waste of time and money! Examples of fiction that is complex and still accessible include Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and the writings of the better sci-fi authors, e.g. Frank Herbert.

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