{"id":497,"date":"2012-04-07T09:14:48","date_gmt":"2012-04-06T21:14:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?p=497"},"modified":"2012-04-07T10:06:57","modified_gmt":"2012-04-06T22:06:57","slug":"its-what-the-reader-takes-out-that-matters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?p=497","title":{"rendered":"The communication illusion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?attachment_id=496\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-496\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-496\" title=\"Miscommunication\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Miscommunication-300x269.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"269\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Miscommunication-300x269.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Miscommunication.jpg 456w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>It\u2019s not what the writer thinks he or she has put in that matters.\u00a0 It\u2019s what the reader takes out.<\/p>\n<p>Lately, I have read or heard about several disputes in which one party says \u2018We didn\u2019t know\u2019 and the other party says \u2018Well, you should have known; we wrote to you\u2019.\u00a0 But writing and communicating are not necessarily the same thing.<\/p>\n<p>This morning I have already received eight pieces of \u2018communication\u2019 \u2013 three by snail mail, five by email.\u00a0 But, having read them, I find there is only one that clearly tells me what I need to know.\u00a0 There is only one that leaves me in no doubt about what to do (or not do) next.\u00a0 The others are just \u2026 well, confusing, hard-to-read waffle.<\/p>\n<p>As most good writers know, clear writing begins with clear thinking.\u00a0 Think carefully about what you want to say and to whom you want to say it, and then say it as clearly and concisely as possible.\u00a0 And then, before you press Send or Print, ask yourself: have I <em>really<\/em> said what I set out to say?<\/p>\n<p>As George Bernard Shaw once observed: \u2018The biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s not what the writer thinks he or she has put in that matters.\u00a0 It\u2019s what the reader takes out. Lately, I have read or heard about several disputes in which one party says \u2018We didn\u2019t know\u2019 and the other &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?p=497\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,6,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=497"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":503,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497\/revisions\/503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}