The aim of every writer is to be read; otherwise why bother to do it? Writing is an almost magical means of communication, in which groups of signs are used to transfer information, ideas and arguments from the mind of one person to that of another. It really is amazing that it ever succeeds; the sad fact is that it often does not. A major difficulty is that the manner in which we write varies from individual to individual and of course varies according to the subject matter, just as the ways in which we read and talk also differ. Bacon's advice from more than four centuries ago still deserves our attention: ‘Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man’ (Bacon 1909 [1597]: 159). With apologies for his sixteenth-century sexism, it seems that he thought that the three activities of reading, discussing and writing are closely related. Certainly one needs to read widely and critically to be able to write well, whereas talking with others is a good way to sort out ideas about one's writing, and the writing itself demands precision. Each of these activities requires intellectual effort, and the way that we write is a reflection of the way that we think; indeed perhaps writing can be regarded as fossilized thoughts. If those thoughts are confused, then one's writing will also be confused.