Good Communication
The English word “communication” stems from the Latin communicare, meaning literally “to make common.” And what are we making common when we communicate? Some meaning; some understanding that the communicator wants to share with others. The end of communication is common understanding, or shared meaning.
If we wanted to describe good communication, we could say that good communication is:
Good meaning (which precedes language),
Delivered effectively.
The method of communication is the delivery vehicle - the metaphorical bike, car, boat, or plane that takes possession of pre-verbal meaning and drops it off at the doorstep of your consciousness. If simplicity delivers the good meaning best, deliver simply. If brevity, verbosity, metaphor, narrative, or case study does the trick, select it as the vehicle. The end of communication is effective delivery of good meaning.
A first draft is a first attempt at vehicle design, and the editing process tests, iterates, and tunes the vehicle to optimize for effective delivery. As you construct the optimal delivery vehicle, you will necessarily improve your own understanding of the pre-verbal meaning and your audience, because the optimal vehicle can only be constructed by someone who understands a) the package being delivered and b) its final destination.