This morning one of the mailing lists to which I’m subscribed linked me to this article about how jargon relates to trust by Shane Snow. I like a lot of what Snow has to say (it’s his mailing list), and he generally makes me think. What he had to say on this occasion isn’t new to me, but it’s important, and might be new to some of you.
Snow usually writes from a business perspective, so bear that in mind; but he has good points to make about the use of clear language. Language at its foundation is a communication tool. When language becomes verbose, it stops being a way to communicate our ideas and starts being a way to measure status.
One of the hallmarks of an inexperience writer is a tendency to use more complicated words than strictly necessary to get our point across. This isn’t a bad thing, for the record — expanding vocabulary is important, and there are vital stages of writing through which we all have to pass in order to learn. (I definitely went through this stage. I think every writer does.) Purple prose is an inexperienced writer flexing: and that’s fine, because all writers need a stage where they learn they can flex.
But don’t mistake the point of that: that stage in a writer’s lifetime isn’t about communicating to readers, even though writers invariably think it is. It’s about communicating with oneself, using readers as a proxy. When I think back on that stage in my own writing development, I remember more so the feeling of playing around with language to say what I really want. Was it always good? No. But the play helped me figure out how to make it better.
Anyone who wants to communicate clearly with their readers had better know how to write in a way which is accessible to those readers. (I’m speaking specifically here of word-use, as opposed to accessibility relating to disabilities, which is a separate topic.)
A caveat: writing in an accessible way doesn’t make big words bad. Note the title of this blog is ‘understandable language’, not ‘plain language’. That’s because big words don’t equal hard topics and small ones don’t equal simple ones, but using the phrase ‘plain language’ sometimes gives the impression that only small words ought to be used. Big words often are alone in their meaning or have specific and applicable connotations. If it’s the word you need, use it.
I make this distinction specifically because big words sometimes get short thrift. Someone who has a wide vocabulary might use a specific word which means exactly what they want, and that doesn’t make the choice a bad one. I tend to believe there’s some meeting in the middle required between writer and audience.
Usually, when text is dense it’s not just because of the words being used, it’s because the point is being avoided. Reading the examples Snow uses in his article, the examples of poor language he presents aren’t just about the words. Hell, in one of his examples the words are as simple as you could want. The problem isn’t the words. It’s that they’re avoiding the point.
Understandable language isn’t just about word-use. Words are important, and if you know your audience you might choose one synonym over another (ie, if you’re writing for a younger audience who won’t have the vocabulary of an older one). But more important is whether you’re willing to commit to what you’re saying. The things that resonate with us the most (or strike us the hardest) tend to be phrases and sentences which cut to the quick, which say the quiet things out loud. That can’t happen when what you want to say has too many trappings.
This goes for anything you write. It goes for fiction. The difference is that in fiction you might want to make your audience think one thing as a red herring, when the truth is another. That’s why the purple-prosey stage of writing is important: you learn how to obfuscate, and then how to not. You learn how to say what you mean without actually saying it, which gives you narrative wiggle room. And then, when all bets are off and you can say what you mean loud and clear, it becomes all the more impactful for it. But that might be a topic for another blog post.
If you want your readers to understand you clearly, don’t just focus on the words you use. Focus on how you use them. If you find your language avoids committing to what you want to say, find ways to cut the crap until you’ve landed on what you actually want to communicate.
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