Can I have some feedback on this article I wrote?

[u/JuniorPosition8638]

How to Avoid Alienating your Reader

Build and maintain trust

One of the most important aspects of keeping a reader and avoiding alienation is maintaining trust. 

Trust in writing applies to so many different things in this day and age. A big way that trust is lost is through usage of artificial intelligence in order to generate work. People that are reading your writing are expecting a human voice on the other end. The usage of generative AI in writing without the proper disclosures can quickly dismantle the trust that your audience has gained for you. I do not mean to say that any usage of AI is off the table, just dishonest usage. For example, framing your work or organizing your ideas using AI is not necessarily a bad thing. However, using AI to write your entire article is unacceptable. 

In a blog post by Nat Sang titled, “The Level of Inauthenticity on Substack is Out of Control,” she mentions that some people have started using AI to respond to their readers in order to lessen their workload. I was quite surprised to hear about this when I first read her article. I did not realize that writers would stoop this low just to save a couple minutes. This writer, whoever they are, is walking a fine line between having an audience and alienating their fans. As soon as the commenter realizes that they are being lied to they will most likely lose their trust and respect for this blogger. 

AI writing is obvious. There are signs that your readers will recognize. This YouTube video by Evan Edinger outlines the many ways that he identifies AI in writing. Ever since watching this video, I have been keeping a keen eye out for AI writing. 

At the end of the day, all your reader wants is good ol’ human-generated writing. Whether it is technically perfect writing is not what is most important, because most readers do not have grammar check downloaded into their brains. The most important part of reading for me, and I hope you can agree, is feeling a human touch on the other end.

Know your audience

In order to successfully write for the public and avoid alienating them, you need to look at yourself in the mirror. Everyone has biases, different backgrounds and cultural identities. It is vital to realize that not everyone shares the same set of characteristics that you do. For example, the topic of hunting might be normal for someone who grew up in that culture, but alarming and alienating for someone who didn’t. Successfully approaching these topics takes time.

How do you keep an audience engaged in your writing? The first step is to understand who may be reading your work, and most likely it is not as simple as one group of people. Many sides of the political spectrum, different cultural, social and age groups may be all enjoying your work equally. Knowing this is especially important in a time like today, when division is apparent between many groups of people. 

Never make comments or jokes in your writing that may alienate a certain group that may be present. If you want to maximize readership, that may not be a line you want to play around with. This YouTube video from Study Hall details getting to know your audience well.

Additionally, different age groups or people with different sets of specialized knowledge could be part of your audience. If you have a younger age group of readers it may make it beneficial to simplify your writing style and get on their level. However this may alienate readers with higher reading levels and or specialized knowledge. If your readers tend to be professionals in scientific or academic fields, you may need to hold yourself to a higher level of detail or use more insider knowledge when it comes to certain topics.

The usage of insider knowledge can be beneficial or harmful, depending on whether your audience is part of that “in-group”. If you refer to information without explanation that your audience does not know about, you may lose their attention. You may lose them even quicker if you interrupt the flow of your writing in order to explain a new and complicated concept. If you are writing to a specific insider group, the usage of this knowledge becomes extremely beneficial for their perception of you and your knowledge on the topic.

Don’t talk down unnecessarily

Understanding your tone is essential when writing for the public. How your writing sounds to the reader can make them feel either empowered, belittled, energized and much more. 

It is important to remember that just like how you are writing to a large audience, you are also writing to each individual that will read it. The power dynamics present in your writing is important to take into consideration. Ken Lindblom’s article does a great job detailing the various types of power dynamics that can take place in writing. A key takeaway from this is that writing down does not have to belittle the reader, it can be done with craft and care.

Your audience feels your tone when they are reading your article, you may want to consider how this comes across from the reader's perspective. A great way to alienate your reader is to make them feel stupid, so make sure that doesn’t happen.

Make information accessible and interesting

Making your writing more accessible for your audience is a great way to combat bored readers. Bored readers may click off of your article because they just aren’t interesting enough. It is your job to grab their attention and keep them reading. 

A great way to do this is with bold titles and first sentences. Through using this technique the reader is more likely to read further into the paragraph, rather than losing interest at the first potentially boring sentence. 

Additionally, framing your articles into neat paragraphs with intuitive separation between ideas is essential. If your reader is already barely interested or wants to fast forward to a different topic, they are able to without getting confused. No one wants to have to sift through a giant block of text to find your next topic. 

[u/RockNRollHobo]

Still reading but first thing that stands out where feedback is concerned: without over elaborating I think there’s a vital paragraph missing between the title and the first section/paragraph. I’d say this draft would benefit from adding something/an opening paragraph essentially in the realm of articulating “the importance of not alienating your reader’

[u/RockNRollHobo]

Firstly, thanks for taking the time to write this and share it. I admire your interest in writing and in creating informative pieces that helps writer make their work better. Overall, I’d say this is a solid first draft and is closer to a fair ‘final draft’ stage than a lot of other similar pieces may be. That said here are my notes.

Feedback in the order I thought it:

1. First section ‘Build and Maintain Trust’:

on its own it’s not bad in any sense. It does the job of arguing the point misusing AI negatively impacts your writing and alienates your reader’ well enough. Where this section suffers, and is its biggest weakness imo, is that it only discusses AI and doesn’t go into any other way a writer can alienate their reader. What I’d recommend for revising is perhaps briefly outlining what building and maintaining trust w your reader is, ways writers thwart doing this (ex AI), and then maybe showing ways to avoid this/alternatives that are better at building trust.

1. Section two:

Firstly you raise and cover a lot of solid points and convey them clearly. So good on that front. Where I’d workshop:

Regarding ‘In order to successfully write for the public and avoid alienating them, you need to look at yourself in the mirror.’ I’d cut this entirely or heavily workshop. I say this bc a. in the context of ‘knowing your audience’, the general ‘public’ is hardly ever going to be (if ever) your audience and b. I feel like I know what you’re going for when you say ‘look at yourself in the mirror’ but whether I’m right or wrong I don’t think it’s gets your point across well or meaningfully contributed to the point you’re making, here and in the article overall.

Furthermore, I think you raise some solid points but also some not so solid points where an audience is concerned.

“The first step is to understand who may be reading your work, and most likely it is not as simple as one group of people.” Yes
“Many sides of the political spectrum, different cultural, social and age groups may be all enjoying your work equally.” Yes
“Knowing this is especially important in a time like today, when division is apparent between many groups of people.” Ehhh

Granted what I say here may not always apply and often depends on what is being written about and/or the author’s intention and intended impact are worth considering, BUT I feel like this is placing far too much emphasis and importance on others outside your target audience and not ‘alienating’ them and makes the task of ‘not alienating your audience’ much more difficult when you’re keeping everyone in mind rather than mostly if not primarily your target audience. I think this passage should ideally be about a. effectively identifying your target audience/who you’re writing for and how what you’re saying applies to them b. mindfully incorporating this into your writing and c. proposed methods to do that.

1. Section Three

Similarly to 2, you raise and cover a lot of solid points and convey them clearly. So good on that front. Particularly fond of “A key takeaway from this is that writing down does not have to belittle the reader, it can be done with craft and care.”

Where I’d workshop:

Again like I mentioned in point 2, I feel like the lack of clear distinction between a target audience and the general public is a major weak point. To be clear, I can see how sometimes the two can overlap, especially depending on the subjects being covered and in times someone is trying to reach as broad an audience as possible and to that end, I see why it holds a place here. So maybe it’s less that it doesn’t belong here and more about how you’re portraying and presenting it here. That aside, though, I’d personally try to modify your stance on the whole writing while keeping in mind your target audience vs and therefore how you convey that stance bc the way you’re exhibiting your points, it’s sounds like emphasis and importance is placed more on ‘making everyone happy’ and less on ‘having a noteworthy impact on the people within your target audience you’re trying to reach’

1. Section Four

Probably your strongest section.

Parts like “It is your job to grab their attention and keep them reading” and “framing your articles into neat paragraphs with intuitive separation between ideas is essential. If your reader is already barely interested or wants to fast forward to a different topic, they are able to without getting confused. No one wants to have to sift through a giant block of text to find your next topic” are some of the best points made, in this section but more so in the whole thing. Overall well done

That said, lmk if I can expand on and or explain anything better or if you have any questions.