That is, in addition to the rhetorical techniques that have evolved over the centuries, we should also become familiar with current scientific research into written communication. Much research has been conducted into the creation and comprehension of written texts. From this research have emerged a number of concepts that concern the relationship between the characteristics of documents and the comprehension of documents. Understanding these concepts can help medical writers better create comprehensible documents that communicate effectively. In this chapter, then, we briefly describe several characteristics that have been proved to promote or inhibit comprehension, we expose several myths about what makes writing readable, and we review several theories of composition and cognitive processing that provide useful approaches to improving written communication.
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