The Essay Whisperer says: Our difficulties in written communication often stem from our inability to recognise that the knowledge we have on a subject (represented by the red circle) is far more detailed and extensive than what we can actually communicate in writing (represented by the zebra circle). Indeed, we often write as if our reader has the same red circle of knowledge, when in fact their only knowledge may be the zebra circle that we are communicating to them. This is what leads to so much misunderstanding. We must necessarily communicate in zebra circles; the skill of the writer then is recognising its limitations, and that their red circle of knowledge is not the same as their reader’s.