As the saying goes, “easy reading is damned hard writing.” That’s especially true with technical content. When you’re sharing industry expertise with a niche, informed audience—such as engineers, technicians, or data scientists—it’s hard to balance value and readability.
But when you’re writing about complex topics, it’s more important than ever to capture readers’ attention and keep them engaged. Even if you’re sharing the biggest breakthrough since Einstein’s theory of relativity, a robotic, jargony tone will send your readers packing.
With that in mind, here are some pointers for humanizing technical content.
1. Toss the jargon
Jargon refers to special terms or expressions used by a certain group of people. For example, marketers often use terms like CTR (click through rate) and PPC (pay per click), or they may talk about the customer sales funnel. Most people outside of the marketing industry won’t understand these terms.
Even if you’re writing for an audience of nuclear physicists, clear, jargon-free copy reads better than a bunch of technical terms strung together. So while you may need to use some technical terms depending on your audience, feel free to toss the jargon wherever you can. A good question to ask is: does this word make the content clearer or more accurate? Or am I just using jargon for the sake of jargon?
2. Keep it conversational
If you’re writing for a highly informed group, you may feel the need to use big words and phrases. Don’t. It can be tempting to slip into a stiff, stuffy tone when writing technical or content, but once again, even nuclear physicists appreciate smooth, easy-to-read copy.
Just write like you talk. Avoid passive voice and run-on sentences. Keep your paragraphs relatively short so readers don’t get overwhelmed by walls of text. Once you’ve finished a first draft, read it out loud, checking for parts that sound awkward or places where your attention drifts.
3. Use headers
Section headers can increase comprehension and help readers skim for important information. If you just read the headers for this blog post, for example, you’d get a fairly good overview of how to write readable technical copy.
Strong headers are short and memorable and accurately describe what a section is about. Try summarizing each section in a few words, then turn that into your header. Tools like humor and alliteration can help your headers stand out, but don’t overdo it: prioritize clarity and accuracy over clever phrasing.
4. Use stories
As a kid, I was obsessed with outer space. So when a company that builds spacecraft processors offered me a project, I jumped. But I soon discovered that it wasn’t all meteors and blast off countdowns. For one thing, I had to interview engineering experts who talked about things like spectrum-based RF geoanalytics. I didn’t even know what that meant. But I do know that you’re paying attention right now, because this is a story.
Similar to visuals, stories help people understand and remember things. They definitely helped me. As I wrote about satellite processors, I found that case studies, personal anecdotes, and analogies helped me understand them better, and I could use those same tools to write copy that was engaging and easy to read.
6. Know your audience
Are you writing for senior level engineers? Junior marketers? CTOs? To write effectively, you need to know who you’re writing for. To help you better understand your readers and the type of content that will speak to them, ask questions like:
- What level are your readers at? (beginner, intermediate, expert)
- What professional positions do they hold?
- What problems are they facing?
No matter who you’re writing for, your copy should be clear and conversational, but when you know your audience, you can speak to their specific pain points and use stories and analogies they can relate to.
7. Simplify, don’t dumb it down
If no one wants to read jargon, no one wants to read fluff either. Smart audiences want to be informed and entertained, not talked down to. So simplify, but don’t dumb it down. Focus on making your content engaging, accurate, and relatable, and you can’t go wrong.
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