Explain yourself: how to build context for uninformed readers

Tips & Take-Alongs for March

Welcome to Tips & Take-Alongs, a collection of considerations inspired by my twice-monthly Ask an Editor threads. Last month’s edition centered on deciding what to write next, and January’s piece explored editing essays after they’ve been published. This month, we’re talking about explaining yourself to readers.

Upgrade here to read today’s Tips & Take-Alongs.

Before we get started, a very warm welcome to the readers who signed up to join Ask an Editor as paid readers in the month of March.  

Jessica DeFino

, S. Lindsay,

Cait Searson

,

Leila Stegemoeller

,

Bee Lilyjones

,

Paige Webster Teeple

,

Ali Pember

,

Phyllis Capanna

,

Amy Ray

,

Melissa Ceria

,

Monica Schimanke

, and

LORAN MCEVOY

.

I genuinely do a little happy dance and/or send a text to my best friend whenever I see someone is supporting their writing with the resources I’m creating here. It means so much! ☀️

How much explaining is too much explaining? 

Let’s dive in. Today, we’re going to talk about a question from

Noha Beshir

about how to provide context and explain yourself (or not!) to a readership that may not share the same cultural knowledge or vocabulary as you.

Here is Noha’s question, submitted during Ask A Guest Editor with Mike Sowden:

I love this question because it centers the reader in a very nonjudgmental, compassionate way. Regarding Noha’s headline, I can imagine that non-Arabic speakers might not know what “Insha Allah” or “Masha Allah” means, but they do understand that those are different phrases, so the headline still works. I also think there’s something to be said for sparking curiosity right away; it’s not always a bad thing when your readers don’t fully understand the words you’re using, especially if they can readily understand the concept, as is the case here.

But to Noha’s broader question, I’m reminded of a quote from Ingrid Rojas Contreras, who said in an interview with

Jane Ratcliffe

,

“Something that took me a long time to realize is that if you try to center people who don't understand what you're writing about, the writing is going to come out stilted. The strain falls on the act of explaining.

Think about someone who will get what you're writing about, and write to them through the whole narrative. After, you can reread, or give the manuscript to someone who’s an outsider to what you’re writing about. You can use their feedback to add contextual sentences here and there wherever they're confused.

We tend to not to trust that people will understand but audiences are very able to meet you where you are.”

I appreciate how balanced this advice feels: center your own experience and the folks who understand you best, then make considerations for those outside that circle. And, when in doubt (or when tired of explaining), trust that readers can meet you where you are.

So, what can those reader considerations look like?

1. Footnotes. Substack has a footnotes feature¹ that allows curious readers to find more context without having to navigate away from the page. Even more helpful, readers can hover over the footnote to read it vs. clicking it and getting sent to the bottom of the post.

2. Hyperlinks. If you’ve already explained a topic or phrase in another post, one of the most seamless ways to direct curious parties to that post is to use a relevant phrase and insert a hyperlink. I agree with Mike’s astute advice in the thread under Noha’s question here — make sure any foundational material you will repeatedly link to is unlocked/free for all. I also love

   Michelle Spencer
   ’s theory that readers falling down a rabbit hole of links of your other works is actually part of how we find our tribes. 💛

3. Building touch points. If you find that you are inserting footnotes and hyperlinks to explain the same points over and over again, one consideration might be to zoom out and remember that each post is part of a larger canon of work. Your repeat readers will understand what you mean because you’ve already done the work of building touch points of understanding over multiple posts.

4. Inviting reader questions. Lastly, if you are feeling generous in time and energy, you can always encourage new readers to ask questions in the comment sections. With any luck, other readers who are in-the-know will jump in and answer their question for you. I like this approach because it means you can write under the assumption that your readers understand you while still offering the option to explain yourself… if needed. The onus is on them.

What are you explaining these days?

Tell us in the comments what you find yourself explaining to readers.

» How does it feel to explain yourself? Is it labor-intensive and tedious? Does it feel natural? Self-redemptive?

» How have you gone about building touch points in your writing? What do you trust that repeat readers know about you and your work by now?

Share it with us in the comments below.

1. To insert a footnote, place your cursor right where you want the footnote to go, then use the “More” drop-down menu to select the “Footnote” option.