Writing to Be Understood: What Works and Why

How do great nonfiction writers connect with us so strongly—and what can you learn from them to apply to your own writing?

Writing to Be Understood explores the ways powerful writers explain and inform, including analogies, imagery, humor, story, and more. 

The book combines insights from cognitive science with advice from expert practitioners in the fields of psychology, technology, economics, medicine, policy, and more. Each chapter wraps up with practical advice that you can put to work, no matter what you're writing.

You'll learn how to:  
 

• Appeal to your readers' innate sense of curiosity
• Connect with audiences that aren't immediately receptive to your ideas
• Make abstract ideas understandable and memorable
• Banish the boring from your work

Whether you're trying to communicate expertise with a mainstream audience, pitching ideas to your team, or hoping to make an impact with a nonfiction book, dig into Writing to be Understood to reach more people with your words.

Gold Medal Winner, 2019 Independent Publisher Book Awards

"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."  - 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