Directness is the quality of being clear, plain, and easy to follow. If a teacher explains with directness, you do not have to hunt for the point; the meaning is sitting in the open. In talk, it often means saying the thing itself instead of dancing around it: “Your work is late,” not a long soft story first. People praise directness when they are tired of fog. They also flinch from it when it arrives too hard, too soon. British speakers sometimes talk about a blunt, local kind of directness as a good, honest habit; American work writing likes the word as a virtue. Though actually, directness is not the same as rudeness. Rudeness is about hurting someone. Directness is about not hiding the meaning. You can be kind and still direct. The word is a noun for a quality, like kindness: you have directness.