Hard writing makes easy reading- Wallace Stegner
Easy writing makes hard reading- Earnest hemingway
Most ideas in the mind are often ill-defined and non-linear. As an author, making those ideas clear on paper requires that she makes an effort to clarify and organize her thoughts. That's hard work. So when the author fails to put in that work, some of that responsibility is shifted to the reader.
In How To Read A Book, Mortimer J. Adler describes this relationship in the exchange of information between the reader and the writer using a pitcher and catcher metaphor. Easy writing is a lot like being a lazy pitcher - the throws lack control and therefore also precision and accuracy. As a result, the catcher can't reliably predict the trajectory of the ball and fails miserably.
This is the same with face to face communication. It's obvious when someone makes the effort to gather their thoughts because you don't have to struggle to understand what is said. What's funny is that my girlfriend shared those quotes with me after calling me out for being a lazy communicator. I was blabbering and made her do all the hard work to figure out whatever the hell I was trying to say (sorry babe). It's not fair or productive for one person in a conversation to be doing most of the work - we should strive to keep our communication balanced in effort. Otherwise, just be quiet.
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