What using long words really says about us

Author : Rob Ashton

Posted : 05 / 11 / 24

How much do big words and flowery phrases really impress our peers? A lot less than many people think, it seems.

I’ve talked before about the strange, alternative language that we adopt whenever we sit down to write a document.

I call this language Documentese, and it’s full of long or complex words and phrases that we rarely use elsewhere. A place is never ‘near’ somewhere, for example; it’s always ‘in close proximity’ to it.

It’s as if we have a verbose alter ego that lives in our keyboard and takes over as soon as we start typing.

More professional?

This ‘other’ version of us is forever on the hunt for a more formal, ‘professional’ way to write things.

It loves long words, believing they sound far more impressive than the everyday language we use when we’re speaking with our colleagues.

OK, maybe that’s a little unfair. We all want our documents to convey authority. So it’s naturally tempting to puff up our paragraphs with impressive-sounding words now and then – especially when it seems everyone else is doing the same.

Hundreds of thousands of years of evolution have hardwired us to fit in with the crowd and we don’t want to stand out – even if it is by choosing a simpler, clearer style. That drive to conform partly explains why it’s so hard to change how we write.

In fact, our manager may actually be telling us to use longer words. And even if they’re not, we’ve still got a nagging worry that using simple language could undermine our authority, credibility or both.

Intelligence

But are people really impressed when we write about ‘increasing engagement with our customer base’ rather than ‘talking more to customers’?

Not according to psychologists. In fact, the opposite is true: it’s simplicity that raises our credibility and authority, not complexity.

Researchers at Princeton University found that long words can make us appear less intelligent, not more.

In one experiment, for example, they asked volunteers to decide whether applicants should be admitted to university based on their personal statements.

They tested two versions of the statements, replacing shorter words with their longer equivalents in the second version.

The result: volunteers were far more likely to deem applicants worthy of a place if their statements used the shorter words.

Credibility

In another experiment, participants had to rate the intelligence of the authors of two different English translations of foreign texts – one simple, one more complex. (Both were accurate.)

Again, they judged those who’d used the simpler language to be more intelligent.

The psychologists saw this effect again and again, in five experiments in all, regardless of the quality of the original text or the type of document.

Professor Daniel Oppenheimer, who led the research, argues that the easier a piece of writing is to understand, the more credit we give not just to the author but to the idea itself.

But text that takes real effort to understand undermines the credibility of both.

The clear way

As I’ve explained before, avoiding Documentese doesn’t mean avoiding jargon, as long as you’re certain your audience will understand it.

In fact, using the same technical terms as your readers can position you as an authority and ally. And it’s an essential shorthand in our professional lives.

More often, it’s what’s in between the jargon that causes the problem.

That’s why you should still connect technical terms with short words and simple phrases.

Use ‘start’ not ‘initiate’ and ‘help’ instead of ‘facilitate’. Don’t write ‘in view of the fact that’ when you could just type ‘because’ or ‘as’.

Choosing clear language will let your ideas and advice shine through and leave your reader with far more brainpower to act on them.

Check out this practical guide to improving readability and this one on making your writing more engaging for more on this.

Or get in touch if you’d like one of our experts to help you or your team directly.

Image: Jeremy Richards / Shutterstock