So what? Who cares?

Why does anyone need to read what you’re writing?

Greetings, all!

Hack News

I’ve been focused on ChatGPT these past few months, thinking through the implications of generative AI for writing, teaching writing, and learning to write. As I’ve said here before, I value writing as a way in which we figure out what we think, and I am worried about how using ChatGPT will impact this important process for all of us. I recently had the opportunity to share my thoughts about this with Glenn Leibowitz for his excellent Write With Impact podcast, which you can listen to (and subscribe to!) here. I’ve already heard from some of you about how you’re using AI in your own writing, and I hope you’ll keep sharing with me.

This week’s Hack: To engage your readers, tell them why they should care.

A few weeks ago, a student asked me for advice about an article pitch she was drafting to send to an editor at a major magazine. She had done a great job summarizing the main points in her article, but the pitch was missing an answer to the “who cares” question: In other words, the pitch did not explain why readers should care about or want to read this particular article out of the many that the editor could potentially publish. Would it add a new dimension to our understanding of the topic? Would it take a different view from what we’re used to reading about this topic? Would it raise a new question, highlight a new problem, or bring readers into a world they haven’t visited before? If I received this pitch in my inbox along with 100 others, why would I choose to keep reading?

Most of us aren’t writing magazine pitches, but no matter what you’re writing at work—an email, a grant proposal, a memo, a job cover letter—you should always have that “who cares” question in mind. If you can articulate why someone should care about what you have to say, you’ll be in a better position to decide how to say it—and your readers will be more likely to read on.

So how do you answer that “who cares” question? Start by asking these questions when you sit down to write: `

1. Why am I writing this? (Why do I care?)

2. Why do my readers need to read it? (Why should they care?)

3. How can I make it clear to my readers why they need to read this? (How can I tell them why they should care?)

Sometimes the answers to these questions will be straightforward. If you’re writing an email to set up a meeting with a colleague, your colleague will read the email because it’s from you—and the subject line says something like “schedule meeting.” But in many other situations, your readers don’t necessarily have to read on.

Readers of Writing Hacks come from many different fields—medicine, advertising, education, tech, sales, pharmaceutical research, and more. You know much better than I do why your readers should care about what you have to say. But are you making sure your readers get that message?

If you’ve ever clicked on a scam email against your better judgment, the scammers probably did a good job of answering the “who cares?” question: If you’re being told your account is going to be deactivated, that your payment is overdue, that someone wants to give you $100 million RIGHT NOW, you’re going to read on.

Photo by Mediocre Studio on Unsplash

I’m not condoning scam emails here, of course. But when those emails do succeed, it’s because the scammers have given their readers a (fake) reason to care. Before you draft a document, make sure to think about question 3 from my list above: How can I make it clear to my readers why they need to read this? Am I proposing a course of action different from what was planned? Does my reader need to know why sticking with our company is better than they might think? Do I want to convince my supervisor that my research is going in the right direction?

Consider the difference between these two emails:

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Version 1

Subject: Meeting notes

Dear Jane,

Here’s my summary of yesterday’s meeting. First, we went around the table, and everyone reported on their year-end goals.  Cinderella said she was hoping to spend more time outside of the house. Sleeping Beauty said she was hoping to spend more time awake. Snow White said she was hoping to eat more fruit.

After an hour, Walt Disney said he was going to shut down the whole company on January 1…

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Version 2:

Subject: Company closing

Dear Jane:

Yesterday’s meeting took an unexpected turn when Walt Disney announced he is shutting down the whole company on January 1…

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Most of us aren’t delivering this kind of dramatic message in our daily emails, but the principle is the same. Lead with something that will make it clear to readers why they need to read on. You can apply this same principle to academic writing, articles, memos, proposals, pitches—whatever you’re writing at work.

I was giving feedback to a friend on a job cover letter a few weeks ago, and I noticed that she had started with her earliest job experiences and built the letter chronologically from there. This is a great example of a situation when it’s crucial to ask the “who cares” question. In this case, the potential employer needs to know early in the letter why this candidate is worth considering—and her earliest job experience isn’t going to answer that question.

Even if you’re not pitching a potential employer or editor, try thinking about what you’re writing as if it’s a pitch that’s going to land in a crowded inbox: Why should your reader want to pay attention to you when there are so many other emails in that inbox?

And if you are pitching a magazine or newspaper article, check out this website I recently stumbled across, Successful Pitches, where you can see pitches that worked.

As always, I hope you’ll share your thoughts on the “who cares” question in the comments. Do you have examples of how this question gets answered effectively in the writing you do at work?