Goal: Encourage professionals to seek feedback from readers to improve clarity, avoid assumptions, and make communication more inclusive and effective.
In a world full of information—emails, websites, social media, and reports—clarity isn’t just helpful; it’s essential. Yet too often, we write as if our readers think just like us. We assume they’ll understand our acronyms, follow our logic, and care about what we say. The result? Confusion, frustration, and lost connection. The solution is simple but transformative: ask, don’t guess. When we invite feedback from readers, we stop guessing what they need and start learning what actually works.
The Limits of Assumption
We might skip steps in our explanations because they seem “obvious” to us. But what’s obvious to one person can be a mystery to another. Assuming understanding is risky—especially in diverse workplaces, public services, and community spaces where people come from different backgrounds and have different levels of language comfort or education.
Why Asking Matters
- When we ask readers for feedback, we show respect. We say, “Your experience matters. Your clarity matters.” It is important to reach people across different cultures, abilities, and literacy levels. Asking invites readers to shape the message with us—to tell us what’s working and what isn’t.
- Even a simple check-in like, “Was that clear?” or “What part was confusing?” opens the door to better understanding. When possible, usability testing or real conversations with readers reveal blind spots we never knew existed. We don’t just become better writers—we become better listeners.
- When educators or communicators guess what their readers understand without asking, they risk leaving some behind due to unclear or overly complicated language. Instead, by asking questions and encouraging feedback, they can adept their communication to meet diverse needs and making inclusion a natural outcome.
What We Learn
- When we ask instead of guess, we learn surprising things. We might find that a form we thought was easy is actually overwhelming. We might learn that images help, or that fewer words are more powerful.
Most of all, we learn that communication is not about what we say—it’s about what people understand.
A Habit, Not a One-Time Fix
- Learning from readers is not a one-time event. It’s a mindset. Asking becomes a habit: before publishing a new webpage, sending a newsletter, or designing a flyer. It becomes part of how we work: draft, ask, revise.
- The more we do it, the more confident we become—not because we’re guessing better, but because we’re listening better.
Reflection prompt
When was the last time you asked someone for feedback on how clear your message was? What did you learn?
Try it
Find a recent email or document you wrote. Ask a colleague: “What part of this could be clearer?” Write down what you’d change.