Seven ways using long words can hurt you at work
Mel (not her real name) asked me for CV advice. She wanted to return to teaching after a long break raising her children, and was feeling vulnerable and low in confidence.?She was therefore making a classic mistake in her cover letters of trying to sound “intelligent” with a complex, wordy tone.?For example:
I am well practiced in utilising rhythm syllables and the tonic sol-fa system but am also able to capitalise on my dance experience to offer learners exceptional choreography which not only facilitates students learning, but also improves the overall performance.
I explained to Mel how?consciously trying to sound “intelligent” or “impressive” in this way can unfortunately have the exact opposite effect.
However, many people believe that using big words makes you sound intelligent. Here’s an example from the?All Women’s Talk?website [2]:
11 Intelligent Sounding Words You Can Easily Slip Into a Conversation Today
It’s easy to sound smart by dropping intelligent sounding words into casual conversations. [For example] PROCLIVITY?[…] It’s one of the intelligent sounding words that you can throw into conversations often, because you can use it to describe your friend with a proclivity for drama or your sister with a proclivity for music.
Well I don’t agree with this advice at all. Here are a few reasons why . . .
1. If you use big words incorrectly, you can come over as unintelligent.
Using long words to sound intelligent, but getting it wrong, is a classic comedy device to make a character sound uneducated, pompous and pretentious, from Shakespeare to the modern day [1].
A variant of this is over-relying on a thesaurus. It may give you?words with similar meanings, but which aren’t interchangeable with the word you looked up.?Here’s an extreme example of this from?Friends:
2. Even if you use big words?correctly, they can make you appear less intelligent
Unfortunately, you’re not necessarily safe even if you use long words perfectly. Daniel M Oppenheimer?found that using long, academic-sounding words can make people appear?less?intelligent, while the authors of easier-to-read texts are rated as more intelligent [3].
On a related note, Einstein is often (probably falsely) quoted as having said that,?“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”?A true expert in something often brings their subject to life with clear explanations, and perhaps also metaphors, personal stories and humour.
3. Complex language can make you appear less pleasant
Mel is a warm, caring and very likeable person. She’s especially funny, creative and sweet with her own kids, and the children she teaches. But the tone of her original letter gave the complete opposite impression.?Using unnatural, complex language can make you sound cold, affected or arrogant.?Let your real self shine through when you write!
The "All Women’s Talk" blog article mentioned above says:?
People might not even know what you’re talking about, so you’ll have the upper hand.?
Well unfortunately,?scoring points and making people feel inadequate or frustrated isn’t a great way to impress.?In fact, Oppenheimer argues that the easier we find it to understand someone, the more positive qualities we assign to them, including likeability as well as intelligence. The opposite is also true – making your writing hard to understand can make you appear less likeable to others.
4. Using long words can make you appear insecure
Research by?Pennebaker and Lay (2002) shows that people are more likely to use long words when they’re feeling the most insecure [4]. On this basis, Oppenheimer suggests that:
One can imagine that a minority student under stereotype threat might be inclined to increase complexity in his/her writing which would backfire and cause teachers to have lower opinions of the student’s intelligence.
Likewise leaders facing crucial decisions might use more complex vocabulary and end up undermining others’ confidence in their leadership ability.
In such cases, an individual may have no idea that their choice of language could be harming their image. So even if you’re fairly confident yourself, it may be something to bear in mind when supporting less confident or experienced colleagues with their self-presentation.
5. It can make you sound less credible
In 2010, US attorney Sean Flammer?asked 800 circuit court judges?whether they preferred a writing sample in traditional ‘legalese’ , or one in “plain language” [5]. The judges overwhelmingly preferred the plain English version, and found it more persuasive, regardless of their age or background.
Flammer also cites another study (albeit flawed in his view) which found that:
The respondents also believed the Plain English author was more believable, well-educated, and worked for a prestigious law firm.
6. Complex language can make your writing boring and hard to focus on
Making your writing easy and enjoyable to read can be hard work; but if you put that work in up-front, your reader won’t have to, which is can be an invaluable gift. Mark Morris?[6] warns civil servants to resist:
领英推荐
the pressure – perceived or real – to conform to a supposed ‘civil service style’.?We become institutionalised […] If you want your writing to achieve its goal, then do all you can to make life easy for your reader. Keep it short, avoid unnecessary technical language and use clear, simple words.?It will increase your chances of being read and understood rather than skimmed or binned.
7. It’s not inclusive
As public servants, most of us know that we should use plain language when writing something about care or other services for our citizens (e.g. a web page or leaflet). However, we’re sometimes less careful about making corporate documents readable and inclusive (e.g. committee papers) [7].
This can create barriers for citizens, but also for our own colleagues – even the committee members themselves.?Not everyone is fluent or confident in English (or whichever language you’re using), or has the time and energy to struggle through a difficult paper.
So is it bad to develop your vocabulary?
Absolutely not!
Having a rich vocabulary gives you so many advantages. As well as enabling you to understand all kinds of texts, it can make you a deeper thinker and better communicator. Big and/or unusual words aren’t off limits at all – sometimes they’re exactly what’s needed. The general principle is that you should?use the best word to explain what you want to say – but never use a word simply to impress.
Equally, although cliched management-speak makes people cringe, using technical jargon with an audience that speaks the same language can be fine. It’s only when you cross over to an audience which might be less comfortable, that you need to think about simpler alternatives and/or explanations.
POSTSCRIPT: Try the experiment yourself!
Read these two short paragraphs, taken from a?US Government Plain English website [8].?Imagine they’re written by two different members of staff. Then ask yourself:
Example A:
The Open Door Initiative is a program based on a simple and fresh attitude: that the CMS desires to better hear and interact with those beneficiaries, providers, and other stakeholders interested in the delivery of quality healthcare for our nation’s seniors and beneficiaries with disabilities. This increased emphasis on responsiveness is captured through an ongoing series of ‘Open Door Forums’ that provide a dialogue about both the many individual service areas and beneficiary needs within CMS.
Example B:
Help us improve our service to you. Attend an Open Door forum near you. For information about upcoming forums, visit cms.gov
So there you are – seven powerful reasons why it’s probably?never?a good idea to use words such as “utilise” . . .
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References
[1] "Delusions of Eloquence". TV Tropes (website)
[2] "11 Intelligent Sounding Words You Can Easily Slip into a Conversation Today". All Women's Talk (website)
[3] "Consequences of erudite vernacular utilized irrespective of necessity: problems with using long words needlessly". Daniel M. Oppenheimer, 2005, in the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology.
[4] "Language Use and Personality during Crises: Analyses of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's Press Conferences". James W. Pennebaker and Thomas C. Layin in the Journal of Research in Personality.
[5] "Persuading Judges: An empirical analysis of writing style, persuasion and the use of plain English". Sean Flammer in the journal Legal Writing.
[6] "Clarity is king – the evidence that reveals the desperate need to re-think the way we write". Mark Morris, on the Government Digital Service blog.
[7] I've written on this topic before in more detail: "The Plain Language Hierarchy for Public Services".
[8] "Plain Language: before and after examples". US Govt Plain Language website.
* Disclaimer: Pushing the Pen is completely separate to my day job, and does not necessarily represent my employer or its views.