{"id":725,"date":"2013-01-26T16:00:28","date_gmt":"2013-01-26T03:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?p=725"},"modified":"2013-01-27T09:39:06","modified_gmt":"2013-01-26T20:39:06","slug":"know-thy-reader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?p=725","title":{"rendered":"Know thy Reader"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"KnowThyReader\"<\/a>It never ceases to surprise me just how many smart, intelligent people hold the same views as me.\u00a0 I am equally surprised by just how many stupid, misguided people hold contrary views.<\/p>\n

Of course, this may have something to do with the fact that, while most of us like to think that we make decisions and reach conclusions based on the best available evidence, we are rather more likely to take up a position and then look for evidence to support our choice.<\/p>\n

We also tend to avoid or discount any evidence that does not<\/i> support our choice.<\/p>\n

(If you agree with this, you are probably nodding your head.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t, you are probably thinking: What the hell does this guy know about anything anyway?)<\/p>\n

I think it may have been A S Byatt who said that in some ways fiction writers have it easy.\u00a0 They can create reality as they go along.\u00a0 Non-fiction writers have to work within the reader\u2019s reality \u2013 however unreal that reality may be.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, many non-fiction writers seem to believe that the facts will speak for themselves.<\/p>\n

\u2018Here\u2019s why our product is best.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Here\u2019s why you should choose us as your preferred supplier.\u2019<\/p>\n

Just tell the reader what is what and it will be \u2018job done\u2019.<\/p>\n

But unless the writer\u2019s version of reality matches the reader\u2019s version, the simple facts may not be enough.\u00a0 Indeed, the reader may well consider your facts to be far from factual.\u00a0 (Look at the global warming debate.)<\/p>\n

One very successful copywriter with whom I used to work reckoned that the most useful piece of information he could have before he put pen to paper was a clear understanding of how the intended reader already thought about what he was going to write about.\u00a0 What did she know?\u00a0 What did she believe?\u00a0 What did she feel?<\/p>\n

\u2018If I know where she\u2019s coming from, I can probably start a conversation,\u2019 he used to say.\u00a0 \u2018If I don\u2019t, I\u2019m just shooting in the dark.\u2019 \u00a0And to remind him what it took to start a conversation, he had on his wall three words of advice: Know thy Reader.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It never ceases to surprise me just how many smart, intelligent people hold the same views as me.\u00a0 I am equally surprised by just how many stupid, misguided people hold contrary views. Of course, this may have something to do … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=725"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":728,"href":"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725\/revisions\/728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}