The reader’s confusion is information, even when the intention seemed obvious to you.

When someone misreads what you wrote, the first instinct is to explain what you meant, as though the meaning were sitting in the message waiting to be collected. It was clear to you because you had the whole thought in your head while writing; the reader had only the words. Their confusion is a measurement of what actually arrived, which is the one thing you cannot see from the inside.

Next time it happens, ask where the sentence turned for them before you defend it. Change the words rather than the reader. If two people stumble in the same spot, that spot is the problem, whatever your intention was.