This is why we love long words

Most of us don’t like the way we look in photos.

We wince slightly when we glance at a picture that includes us.

Despite how it might feel, though, this has very little to do with how we actually look. It’s because the face we’re seeing is not the face we see in the mirror every day.

We like what we see most

But if you’ve ever noticed the reflection of someone you know, you may have felt that it’s that image that looks wrong, not the way they look in real life.

Both feelings arise because we grow to like best what we encounter most.

That’s why we can acquire tastes even for foods that we hated at first. It’s why companies pay millions in sports sponsorships to put their logos in places where lots of people will see them repeatedly.

Hard to let go

And it’s why we can find it so hard to let go of Documentese – the name I’ve given to the long words and phrases we often reach for when writing reports and proposals.

Last week, I explained that this is because we’ve evolved to conform with the people around us. It’s an ancient survival mechanism – a hangover from our distant past.

But there’s another reason that we can also trace back to our ancestors: we’re hardwired to prefer familiar things.

Back then, always getting berries from the same bush was a way to avoid food that might poison you. You didn’t get sick last time, so you probably won’t this time either.

And becoming attracted to the potential mates you often saw in your own village increased your chance of reproducing. Ancient humans who had to walk 20 miles to the next settlement before they could find anyone they might remotely fancy were less likely to pass on their genes.

Language of thought

So unfamiliar things might look odd at first. But we often start to prefer them as they become more and more familiar. (Psychologists call this the mere exposure effect.)

Try to remember how you felt when you first read this kind of sentence early in your career:

It is our intention to fully leverage our knowledge assets.

It probably left you scratching your head (if you didn’t skip over it entirely).

That’s probably not the kind of language you would naturally have chosen back then, preferring something like this instead:

We’re going to make the most of what we know.

That may even have been the sentence that first popped into the author’s head, before they translated it into Documentese. It’s written in the natural language of human thought.

Make simpler familiar

Over time, though, the more complex style stopped looking so strange. And before you knew it, something very odd happened: you started to prefer it.

From then on, it was the other style that didn’t feel right.

It might seem better to write ‘utilise’ than ‘use’. ‘At this moment in time’ may feel more appropriate than ‘now’.

But is that how the people you’re writing for will see it?

They probably prefer a style that’s easier to read, just as you once did.

So if ditching the Documentese feels uncomfortable, that’s not because you shouldn’t do it.

It could just be that you’ve spent too long looking in the mirror.

We’re all human

The road to ditching Documentese is not always a smooth one.

I’ve yet to meet a senior executive who didn’t prefer reports that were easier to read, but it’s still common to get pushback from more immediate colleagues and managers.

Remember, though, that we’re all human. If others prefer Documentese, that could just be because it’s more familiar.

Bringing them round to a more readable style will take time.

People gradually start to prefer it when it becomes the norm. So the key is to raise both awareness and familiarity across your organisation.

Sharing this link to all the Writing Matters issues in which I’ve covered this topic may help. Likewise my colleague Kathy Gemmell’s excellent article on the readability techniques you need for clearer writing.

Image credit: Noah Clark / Unsplash

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Author: Rob Ashton

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Rob Ashton is the founder of Emphasis and posts mainly about writing and the brain – a topic he's been researching for seven years. You can read more of his work in Writing Matters – our weekly bulletin of career-building writing advice backed by science.