Writing to Be Understood: What Works and Why

Have you ever wondered what makes your favorite nonfiction books so compelling, understandable, or enjoyable to read? Those works connect with you, as a reader. When you recognize what's happening, you can apply those same methods to your own writing.

Writing To Be Understood is the thinking writer's guide to effective nonfiction writing techniques, such as:

- Using analogies to illustrate unseen concepts
- Appealing to the reader's innate curiosity
- Balancing humility with credibility

For each topic, the book combines insights from cognitive science with advice from writers and expert practitioners in fields of psychology, technology, economics, medicine, policy, and more.

Whether you're an expert trying to communicate with a mainstream audience or a nonfiction writer hoping to reach more people, Writing to be Understood will help you expand the impact of your words.

Gold Medal Winner, 2019 Independent Publisher Book Awards
Part of the Nonfiction Explorer's Series

"In this straightforward, practical guide from Janzer (The Writer's Process), the 'why' of her subtitle provides her book's most intriguing aspect...[H]er belief that the world needs effective communicators of challenging and multifaceted topics provides this entry into a crowded genre with an unusually compelling reason for being."  - BookLife review in Publisher's Weekly
"The world needs more writers who can communicate effectively, clearly, and empathically about complex topics like science and medicine. Read this book and become one of those writers." - Laura Lindenfeld, Ph.D., Director of the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University
"In today's distracted world, it's not enough to simply write well - you have to hook the reader's interest and accelerate their comprehension. Use this book to engineer a better, more effective reading experience." - Nir Eyal, author of Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products