Clarity Needed

Law of Truth

The Law of Truth encompasses the knowledge and understanding of right thinking, acting, and living. This law encourages us to search for greater awareness; as a result, we strive to know the truth of all things. It is a law of guidance, for it helps us tell right from wrong.

Although I have attempted to express myself in my writing, clearly, it has not always been so. I have tried to express exactly what I want the reader to understand. I also tried to say what was on my mind in relationship to the subject giving as much information as I believe is needed. With that being said, it is not always possible to write without typos and misspelled words. This happens because sometimes my mind works faster than I can type and typos and spelling errors occur. I think that we all have that problem from time to time when writing.

The other day, I received an email from a friend where he made a statement that was so ambiguous, that if I didn’t already know what he was talking about, I would have had to ask him to rewrite his email for clarification. I know that we sometimes think that we don’t need to be clear when reproducing what is on our minds. However, it is important that we give as much information as we can to keep ambiguity from occurring.

When a person writes an article for publishing he is expected to give exact information based on facts, or the article will not be published. It is the same with anything written. Let me give you an example of how ambiguous information can be: A few years ago when I was married, my wife and I were invited to the wedding of her niece. We were given the address as being on a certain street in St-Martin. I knew of a Saint Martin Street so I believed we could find the church easily and arrive at the church in plenty of time for the ceremony. We left the house and arrived on Saint Martin Street looking for the church; we didn’t find it. We asked people at a service station, they didn’t know the church or where it was. We tried several other stations and finally found a woman who new the church and Saint Martin Street and that it was located in the town of Saint Martin, not the street. We were not told and didn’t even know there was a town called Saint Martin. We got to the church when everybody was leaving the wedding service. We were pulling into the parking lot arriving just in time to see them release the doves – something that is often done after a wedding. I’m glad we found the church so we could follow the others to the reception hall or we may not have found the place. You can see by this example that correct clear information is an absolute must. If we had been given something more than “it’s just over there” maybe we would have been in time for the complete wedding.

This writer is well aware of the problems that can come about by writing information that is not coherent. When I was in university I was taking a class in Technical Writing. The professor told us a story of when he was in university and during the summer worked with a railroad maintenance crew. One day they were out doing repairs on a railcar that had jumped the track and needed to be placed back on the track and some repairs done. The professor said that he was under the railcar with a part in his hands but didn’t know exactly where to place it. He was told to “move it north”. Move it north? He had never heard that expression before and didn’t know what the boss was talking about. In his frustration, he asked the boss for clarification. The boss finally told him to raise the part up, so that it could be bolted into place on the under side of the railcar. When a person has never heard an expression before, or direction so that they know exactly where to go, exact and clear instructions are necessary.

After I write an article, I read and reread it many times in order to make sure that words are spelt correctly, there are no typos and what I write is clear. Sometimes it doesn’t matter how many times I read my work, I still miss the typos and other problems. What is a person to do?

Well, have someone else read what we have written before publishing. OK, but does this always work? Sometimes yes, and sometimes no! You see, a person who reads what we write tries to understand what the subject is all about and what it is we are trying to say. Then they can make suggestions that will make the article clearer and correct any typos.

One must remember that another person’s ideas on any particular subject may be different than the writers. This is something we can all relate to – I’m sure. The question now is, “where do we go from here?” Do we keep writing until we get it right or just give up and do something else – what, I’m not sure.