A Practical Writing Tool for Architects: The Ladder of Abstraction
Architects and designers like to talk about big ideas and small details. I do too. And I like to write about them. But sometimes we both can get caught in the middle, using complex language to explain relatively simple things. That’s when the Ladder of Abstraction comes in handy.
This powerful tool helps keep my writing grounded and meaningful. It helps make those big ideas easier to understand, and it imbues those small details with greater significance.
The Ladder of Abstraction is attributed to S.I. Hayakawa’s 1939 book Language in Action. I learned about it from Roy Peter Clark’s masterful book Writing Tools. And I’ve since seen it in many places, in many forms.
The idea at the core of this tool is quite simple: imagine all language exists on a ladder. The higher you go, the more abstract the language gets. At the top, the realm of “BIG IDEAS” and important concepts. At the bottom of the ladder, language is concrete. Clear imagery. Relatable ideas. Good writers move and down the ladder, without lingering too long in the middle where language tends to be vague, bureaucratic and jargon-filled. When you write in the middle, most readers won’t have any idea what you’re saying.
See the slideshow above for ideas and examples showing how the ladder can be used to improve your writing.
A version of this dispatch originally appeared on instagram.
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