Anyone who has tried to read a legal document or a technical manual understands how jargon, clutter, numbers and acronyms can jumble together, undercutting meaning and frustrating even the avid reader.

Writers must avoid the trap of describing complex issues in complicated prose. Clarity starts with a clear understanding of the topic you are writing about. Here are some other strategies for turning complicated facts into clear language for your audience.

Every editor must learn to fix stories, but fixing is not the same as coaching. Coaching is the human side of editing. In other words, the editor coaches the writer — but fixes the story.

Before an editor can successfully coach a reporter, you need to know who he or she is. A simple "getting to know you" interview with a reporter can reveal a lot of information that you can use to be a more effective coach. Consider asking a writer these questions:

For an editor, coaching means engaging the writer in an ongoing conversation about the story, from the idea to the final edit. You probably will spend less time "fixing" a story when it comes in if you invest time throughout the reporting and writing process.

One key moment to coach is after the reporting but before writing. Here are some questions you can ask that will guide the reporter toward a clearer focus on the story and help identify how to make this story different from other coverage of the topic:

Every editor must learn to fix stories, but fixing is not the same as coaching. Coaching is the human side of editing. It serves the reader by making the story and the writer better at the same time.

Here are some key differences between coaching and fixing:

I have attended a lot of writing conferences since I arrived at Poynter in 1979.  I have organized some, delivered keynote speeches and hands-on workshops, and I have sat in the audience as a learner, at times enthralled by the speaker, at other times amazed that so many people seem so engaged by a writer whose grasp of the writing process seems so obvious.