Nib #4: Sympathy for Your Reader

Writing is hard because reading is hard. It requires concentration, oftentimes even silence. If you’ve ever had to flip back a few pages in a book and re-read them because you literally can’t remember what you read five minutes ago, you understand.

Good writers, then, adopt a mindset of radical sympathy toward their readers and work to make their writing easy to read. Word choice, punctuation, paragraphing, and outlining can be properly understood as hospitality.

Don’t just invite your readers into your writing. Make them feel at home. Taken care of. Anticipate their wants, needs, and possible inconveniences and preemptively accommodate them as you plan, write, and revise your drafts.

Make your writing easy to read, and people will want to read it. It’s hard work, but it’s worth it.

Until next week… keep writing!

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Nib #62 Slotkin’s Rope-a-Dope Response

March 14, 2025

The official Democratic response to President Donald Trump’s big speech before Congress last week offered the country not only a contrast of political visions, but of rhetorical strategies. Trump’s address was defined by — and indeed, succeeded on — the strength of its concrete details: specific programs cut, specific heroes lauded, specific private-sector investments announced (See Nib #61 ). Democratic Senator Elissa Slotkin’s nationally televised speech immediately following Trump was, too. But not obviously. Most of the specific details of the speech were biographical, in the first 100 words. After that, Slotkin glazed over issues with airbrushed generalities: “We need to bring down the price of things we spend the most money on…” “… change doesn’t need to be chaotic or make us less safe…” “Today’s world is deeply interconnected…” “We are a nation of strivers.” The climax of Slotkin’s speech was almost a parody of homogenized political banalities. The two things we need to overcome today’s challenges, according to Slotkin and her speechwriters: “Engaged citizens and principled leaders.” Woof. On the other hand, Democrats know this poll-tested pap won’t move the needle. So what’s really going on here? The most likely answer is what boxers call the “rope-a-dope.” That is, Slotkin’s — and by extension her party’s — plan here is to put up perfunctory, superficial resistance to bait Trump into overreaching or punching himself out. This is what Muhammed Ali famously did to George Foreman in 1974.