![]() ![]() Smart people respect simple language not because simple words are easy, but because expressing interesting ideas in small words takes a lot of work.īe interesting. Conspicuously sesquipedalian communication can signal compensatory behavior resulting from suboptimal perspective-taking strategies. Why? It’s the complexity trap: Complicated language and jargon offer writers the illusion of sophistication, but jargon can send a signal to some readers that the writer is dense or overcompensating. His study and other research found that when people use complicated language, they tend to come across as low-status or less intelligent. If you don’t believe it from a journalist, believe it from an academic: “When people feel insecure about their social standing in a group, they are more likely to use jargon in an attempt to be admired and respected,” the Columbia University psychologist Adam Galinsky told me. ![]() Then I graduated and realized that intelligent readers outside the classroom don’t want big words. What follows is hardly Strunk and White, but some may find it helpful. ![]() So instead I shared a few organizing principles that I’ve relied on for nonfiction writing, and I’m sharing them again, below. My career has been full of hard work but also quirky luck, and I think everybody should distrust individuals who claim that the path to success is a highly specific set of circumstances that just happens to match, step for step, the story of their life.Ī rant about selection bias seemed misplaced, though. A few years ago, a young writer asked me if I had any tips for an aspiring journalist. ![]()
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