Reader's brain

(27 Jul 2022)

I have been looking for inspiring writing guides and finally found one! While visiting Cambridge (UK), I happened to stumble upon Prof. Yellowleed Douglas’ book on neuroscience and writing: “The Reader's Brain”. By using principles from neuroscience she explains how people understand and process text, and consequently how we can produce text which can be easily understood and recalled. Basically, the thesis is that highly readable text can be produced by aligning the text with our key psychological capabilities (which are not too complex anyhow). The book is apparently one of the first science-based writing guides, and I found it very engaging, practical, clear and even humorous. Which is quite impressive considering the challenging (and a bit dry) topic! Anyway, she introduces five principles for writing – clarity, continuity, coherence, concision and cadence – which can be applied to produce highly readable text. After reading the book I find it much easier to understand why some writings are so readable (including some of mine I hope…) and which tools can be used to further improve my writing.