Two lines, for the busy
Writing that explains goes point first: claim, reason, example.
Writing that gets experienced goes ki-seung-jeon-gyeol, with the core in the resolution.
Does writing feel hard? That’s because you don’t know the structure. Every piece of writing delivers its subject in one of two ways, and each way has a structure that fits it. Learn those two structures and the writing comes out easily and reads easily.
The first kind is writing to be understood. It explains a claim, or something difficult. Efficiency is what matters here. A reader who only skims should still catch the core. With a report or a paper, the title and the introduction have to give away what’s inside, or the reader isn’t satisfied.
This kind reads well when you write it in the PREP structure. PREP means “claim, reason, example, summary”. The structure matches the way people think. Read a claim and you want to know why (the reason). See the reason and you want to know whether it’s actually true (the example). And by the time they’ve finished reading they’ve forgotten the claim, so you tell them again (the summary) and the core stays with them. Write in PREP and the reader comes away satisfied.
Here’s an example. Say you open with the claim that we should stop global warming. The reader will want to know why. So you give the reason: global warming raises sea levels, and that can kill people. Now the reader thinks, is that really true, my house seems fine. So you show the study: in the Maldives ten thousand people a year have had their homes go under for the past ten years, and in thirty years Seoul goes under too. Only then does the reader nod and accept the claim. You’ve said everything you wanted to say, so summarize the subject. It means, if you remember one thing, remember this. Now the reader knows exactly what the piece was about, and remembers it. That’s a successful argument.
Writing built in the order the reader gets curious leaves no questions or confusion behind. It works for the whole piece, and it reads better still when each paragraph inside it has the same shape. This post is built the same way, by the way.
Do the opposite, hide the report’s claim in the middle or hold it back until the very end, and it’s frustrating. Frustrating is the good case. The reader may never get the point at all. Writing like that wastes the reader’s energy and time. That’s a failed explanation.
So write explanations point first: claim, reason, example. That’s how you save the reader time and energy.
The second kind is writing to be experienced. It usually takes the shape of a story. Fiction and essays work this way. Where writing to be understood carries information, this kind carries values. A story-style ad, for instance, is writing to be experienced. The ad carries the value of liking that brand. The goal of this kind of writing is to move people. So it has to hide its subject inside the story. Hearts move by story, not by logic. Put the subject up front the way an explanation does and it won’t move anyone.
You write this kind in the “ki-seung-jeon-gyeol” structure. First you open the story. That’s “ki”, the setup. The story is open, so now it’s time to develop it. That’s “seung”, the development. Just as the reader settles into the developing story, something unexpected breaks. The reader is surprised. That’s “jeon”, the turn. Finally you resolve what broke in the turn and tie the story off, and that’s “gyeol”, the resolution. The way the trouble gets resolved is the subject of the story. In ki-seung-jeon-gyeol the subject shows up at the end. The reader has to feel the subject inside the story to be moved, and being moved is what makes it stick and what changes a person.
Take the story of Pinocchio.
Pinocchio the wooden puppet was living happily with old Geppetto. Then he lies and slacks off, gets swallowed by a whale, and lands in trouble. But in the end he tells the truth, works up his courage, and saves Geppetto and his friends. That’s what turns him from a wooden puppet into a person. Perfect ki-seung-jeon-gyeol.
And the subject, honesty and diligence, sits inside the rescue itself. The reader lives through Pinocchio’s adventure with him and feels how much honesty and diligence matter. Suppose you dropped the story and handed over the lesson as “claim, reason, example” instead. Would it move anyone? Would it stay with them? You could get the idea across, that honesty matters, and still fall short of moving anyone.
The reader came out a different person because they experienced the story, which is to say the trouble breaking out and the trouble getting solved. Courage saves the old man from the whale. Iron Man, who only ever cared about himself, saves humanity by sacrificing himself. The reader watched the thing that startled them get resolved by the subject of the story. That kind of experience stays in your head and keeps working on you long after. That’s the power of a story.
So writing that reads well takes only these two structures. For a busy boss, hand in a report built as “claim, reason, example, summary”. That’s what lets them decide fast. But reasons and examples won’t shake a customer. Shake them with a “ki-seung-jeon-gyeol” story.
Do these two well and writing will stop hurting.
(I’ll cover stories and ki-seung-jeon-gyeol in detail in the next post, so follow along and you’ll get a notification.)