Tag Archives: complex language

A really bad thing to do to your writing

Plain language / Plain English,

Stephen King, the famous author of many books, says in his book  On Writing:

‘One of the really bad things you can do to your writing is to dress up the vocabulary, looking for long words because you’re maybe a little bit ashamed of the short ones. This is like dressing up a household pet in evening clothes. The pet is embarrassed and the person who committed this act of premeditated cuteness should be even more embarrassed.’

Some writers think using big words and long sentences makes their writing more impressive or authoritative. They feel they have a need to impress others by using language in a complex way.

Studies show the reverse is true – people who can express ideas in a simple way are often perceived as more knowledgeable and competent.

Impress with your thinking, not your language

Plain language / Plain English, Thinking & writing, writing tip,

Some writers deliberately write in a way that makes their text difficult to read.

They do this to create an air of mystique or superiority or to appear more ‘educated’ than their readers. They emphasise the supposed distance between their intelligence and that of the reader by using words that their readers may not know and putting it altogether in long and complex sentences.

This is a pretence! It always gets in the way of good, effective communication.

If you feel you need to impress you readers in some way, do it with the power and clarity of your thinking, not by showing off with your language or vocabulary skills.

And sometimes, difficult writing is simply a cover-up for a lack of clear and insightful thinking. Some writers use complex writing in an attempt to sound profound when they are not really saying anything worthwhile at all.

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