Darwin and Reader-Focused Writing

Charles Darwin's success at publicising his ideas on natural selection is an example for us all.

I was reading about Charles Darwin yesterday, and how he got his ideas over to a nation that was by no means guaranteed to be receptive to them. His success has a message for us all - know your target audience.

He started developing his ideas twenty years before publishing his book and restricted his writing on the subject to a few articles for scientific journals. One of several reasons for this was that he knew his God-fearing public (including his wife) and preferred not to be the focus of an angry storm of protest. His joint paper with Alfred Wallace to the Linnean Society was called: "On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties; and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection". It made no impact at all.

A year later he published "On the Origin of Species", a short book which explains the succinctly named notion of "natural selection". He consciously avoided the term "evolution" because of the dangerous associations with Biblical debate he knew it would have. He wrote in clear, straightforward English (rather quaint 19th century English, reasonably enough) which is very readable even today. The first edition sold out on the day of publication and the ideas immediately led to international debate. Why? First, Darwin considered his audience - waited for them to be receptive and used language they would understand and respond well to. Second, he chose a succinct and memorable title.

Comments

• This is very useful piece. And a reminder of keeping it simple, using the right labels and knowing your audience.

  I try to apply it in my own blog - sometimes I succeed!

  http://mikebarnato.wordpress.com/

  By mike barnato on 2009 11 08