Hi Reader,

I recently wrote about how "technical" depends on who you're comparing yourself to. Around the same time, someone told me they were worried about publishing something too simple, because other writers might read it and decide they didn't know much.

I understand the worry, but it pictures the wrong reader. When you're afraid of looking basic, you're imagining the most experienced person who might see your work. That person already knows the answer and isn't looking for it. The people searching for it are the ones who need it.

Basic answers find big audiences

Small YouTube channels that answer basic questions well can reach far more people than follow them.

A video called "What Is Technical Writing?" on William Smith's channel has 82,000 views. The channel has about 2,600 subscribers.

APU Writing and Tutoring posted a workshop on the fundamentals of technical writing that has 272,000 views, on a channel with about 3,500 subscribers.

Future with Fawzi posted a 12-minute explanation of how AI works about a year ago. It already has 237,000 views, on a channel with about 5,600 subscribers.

Each of those videos has at least 30 times as many views as its channel has subscribers, and the newest one got there in a year. The channels had no audience waiting, so people found the videos by typing a question into a search bar. Experienced creators tend to skip basic questions because they assume everyone already knows, which leaves the answer to whoever is willing to write it.

The same is true of documentation. The pages readers land on most are usually the getting-started guide, the installation steps, and the fix for the error everyone hits in their first week.

You're judged on how well you answer

Readers judge an answer to a simple question the same way they judge any other answer: by whether it got them what they needed. A weak answer to a basic question usually fails in one of these ways:

• It buries the answer under background the reader didn't ask for.
• It relies on terms the reader would need to know already.
• It talks down to the reader with words like "simply" and "just," which tell someone who's stuck that they should have figured it out by now.

A strong answer puts the answer first, uses the words the reader searched for, and stops when the question is answered. Experienced readers notice that kind of answer, because they know how much it leaves out on purpose.

This applies to your portfolio too

When writers put together a portfolio, many of them reach for their most complex sample to prove they can handle hard material. A clear answer to a simple question can be the stronger sample. It shows a hiring manager that you know your reader and can get them what they need without wasting their time.

Diana Payton