What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.

Ease on the page is manufactured. A sentence that reads smoothly has usually been rewritten several times, and the labour is invisible by design, which fools people into thinking fluency is a gift. Whatever costs the writer nothing tends to cost the reader attention.

The same holds for anything you make for other people: a talk, a proposal, an apology. Draft it, leave it, cut a quarter of it, then read it aloud. That extra half hour is generally the difference between something endured and something enjoyed.