This article is an excerpt from the Shortform book guide to "The Pyramid Principle" by Barbara Minto. Shortform has the world's best summaries and analyses of books you should be reading.
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What’s the problem with unclear writing? Why will the traditional writing process fail you?
According to Barbara Minto in her book The Pyramid Principle, people often produce unclear writing that’s time-consuming and mentally taxing to read. This is because the typical writing approach fails to meet readers’ needs.
Below we’ll look at why the typical writing and reading process leads to unclear writing.
The Typical Writing Process
Minto argues that most people brainstorm ideas while they write, resulting in conclusions-last writing: writing that ends in a conclusion. First, they brainstorm ideas by writing sentences. Next, they review their ideas and consider how they relate to each other. Finally, they summarize these relationships in a concluding sentence. Here’s an example of conclusions-last unclear writing: “It was an achingly gorgeous fall day. I knew that winter was around the corner. I also knew that nothing on my to-do list was urgent. So I decided to spend my Monday afternoon strolling through my tree-lined neighborhood.”
(Shortform note: Minto claims that most people automatically produce conclusions-last writing, but whether or not this is true for you may depend on your cultural background. One expert on intercultural communication claims that everyone is capable of presenting information in a variety of orders, but every culture tends to prefer one order over the others. For instance, people from continental European cultures tend to present their conclusions last, whereas people from Anglo-Saxon cultures usually present their conclusions first.)
The Typical Reading Process
Whereas writers typically formulate conclusions after they generate ideas, Minto claims that readers naturally formulate conclusions while they read. Our brains are wired to automatically identify the logical relationships between ideas and develop conclusions that summarize those ideas. This process helps us remember information since it’s easier to recall a single conclusion than to remember the multiple separate points that support it.
(Shortform note: Research in psychology supports Minto’s claim that formulating conclusions about a group of ideas helps you retain information. According to psychologists, we naturally engage in chunking: a process in which we compile related information into a thematically related “chunk.” Chunking helps you hold information in your working memory (your brain’s system for temporarily storing information). As Barbara Oakley explains in A Mind for Numbers, chunking also helps you retain information over time: Your long-term memory also stores information in the form of chunks.)
Why Conclusions-Last Writing Overburdens Readers
Minto argues that unclear writing overburdens readers in two ways: 1) It makes reading more effortful and time-consuming, and 2) it confuses them. Let’s explore these two problems further, then illustrate them with an example.
Problem 1: Conclusions-Last Writing Makes Reading More Effortful
First, Minto argues that conclusions-last writing requires readers to expend time and energy forming conclusions as they read. When a writer doesn’t supply a conclusion up front, the reader defaults to their natural tendency of generating a conclusion themselves. This is a higher-order thinking skill that requires mental energy and slows down the reading process.
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Here's what you'll find in our full The Pyramid Principle summary:
- How to write so clearly that you can get a point across within 30 seconds
- How to write a clear, compelling introduction, body, and conclusion
- Why you should always start your prose with your conclusion and work backward
