How to make communication as clear as possible without dumbing down your message? We're often encouraged to spoonfeed audiences, so as not to lose their precious attention for as long as possible. But sometimes the spoonfeeding leads to oversimplification. What then? This is a problem that I faced frequently in academia. We’re urged to make things accessible for students, many of whom arrive underprepared for college-level work. At the same time, we’re responsible for helping

I majored in English, so I had a lot of experience with writing, but it wasn’t until I taught rhetoric and argumentative writing during...