Do you ever experience it? Hours of hard work went into it. But once you sent the text out into the world, something happened that you did not see coming… Your message did not come across at all! What now? Do you write a new text? And how do you avoid the same thing happening again? Because communicating well isn’t that easy.
That last sentence was perhaps an understatement. Because actually, communicating well is just incredibly difficult. Whether your message comes across well depends on so many things. Think of emotions, cultural differences, bias and even the medium you choose. How do you take all these into account?
Be aware of communication pitfalls
It helps if you know what communication pitfalls there are. A common one is bias. You communicate based on what you know. So it is not surprising if your text mainly addresses people of your own age, gender or origin. But this is obviously not very effective for communicating your message. Because your target audience does not consist only of people like you. In fact, your target audience might even consist mainly of people who are very different from you…
Make your text accessible to everyone
Talking about your target audience… don’t forget inclusive communication. Your target group does not consist of all the same people. Take this into account in your communication! One way of doing this is by choosing understandable language. In concrete terms, this means writing at language level B1. A large majority of readers can understand that. And don’t forget that your text really should be recognisable for everyone. For readers of all ages, genders and cultures.
A simple solution to a difficult task
Preventing bias, using understandable language and writing in a recognisable way… it’s quite something. No wonder, then, that communicating well is so difficult. Because we just said it: you communicate based on what you know. So you almost always do it the same way. And that while society is constantly changing. But changing behaviour is easier said than done. Even training often still does not produce enough effect….
So where does the solution lie? With Textmetrics’ AI assistance. Our smart AI writing software gives you continuous support while writing. The text optimizer in our platform for text improvement gives you suggestions and advice while writing. This ensures that you write inclusive, high-quality texts that everyone can understand. So with Textmetrics, you have a simple solution to a very difficult task. And AI makes your working life not only easier, but also a lot more fun.