Book Give-Away: The Connected and Committed Leader: Lessons from Home, Results at Work
by Miki SaxonDo you understand what I write?
A few weeks ago I read that you should never use a thesaurus and always write using the simplest words possible. The object being that your readers never had to look up a word or think about your meaning.
I didn’t comment at the time because I was too annoyed (good rule not to comment when you’re seething; that way you don’t regret it later), then my system crashed and I lost the link.
Before the crash, out of curiosity I had checked and the post scored 7.2 on the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level indicator
That fits with what I’ve always heard about newspapers and other media writing for a seventh grade reading level.
To me, this attitude is a major contributor the dumbing down of our population. I see it daily in the glaring difference between the articles in the NY Times and the locally written articles in my own newspaper.
In writing both my blogs I use my normal vocabulary developed from years of reading—mysteries (not thrillers), F&SF, biographies, business, and a lot of other stuff along the way. My posts typically score between 10.x and 12.x, so I’m curious.
Do you find them difficult to read or understand?
Do you really prefer writing at the 7.x level? (This post is 7.9)
Please take a moment and tell me what you think.
All comments through May 15 go in the hat for a random drawing. The winner will receive a copy of The Connected and Committed Leader: Lessons from Home, Results at Work by Laura Lopez.
Image credit: karindalziel on flickr
April 30th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
Yes I understand what you write!
But don’t you believe it has a relationship with your audience type and diversity?
If your target audience is a philosophiae doctor in engineering, the language chosen may be different than you would use for a different audience.
I recently started reading Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s The Black Swan – and have to confess that he is forcing me to use parts of the old cortex that are out of shape!
Perhaps you consider it writing to the lowest common denominator!
Regards!
April 30th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
Ah contraire, Elliot. I love books that push my cortex in some way. As to my audience it varies widely, but I believe that it is intelligent and will deal with what I write.
Humans are lazy animals, so if everyone with a general or unknown audience writes to the lowest common denominator then it will keep moving lower—and right now vocabulary and all that’s connected to it seems to be sinking like a stone.
May 1st, 2009 at 10:13 am
Miki,
Your writing is great, that is why I follow your blog.
I also agree with your position that we are dumbing down our ability to communicate. Between the failing school systems, rampant text messaging, Twitter, and other “social media,” I wonder how long it will be before anyone under middle-age will be able to form a complete sentence?
With parents now having to take classes on how to understand and communicate with the “texting” generation, there appears to be little hope for salvaging what used to be considered “proper” English. I fear that writing at the 7th grade level today, is not the same as it was a few decades ago.
Incidentally, what are your thoughts on Twitter? I have not tried it yet, but I am frequently told that it is something I simply must do. I have resisted so far.
Thank you for your insightful posts.
May 1st, 2009 at 11:10 am
Fascinating.
Miki your blogs are not too difficult to understand you can keep on using 3 or 4 syllables words ;)
May 1st, 2009 at 11:27 am
Thanks, Bob, I love compliments:) Sadly, As you point out, dumbing down has been going on for decades, so many middle-agers can’t write now.
I don’t Twitter. When we release our new product we’ll probably be forced to use Twitter for marketing, but I’ll find someone else to do it.
My problem is that for the same time other people read blogs, update Facebook and MySpace and Tweet, I’d rather read a book, Business Week or the NT Times.
But that’s what us dinosaurs do:)
May 1st, 2009 at 11:29 am
Thank you, Denis. Now tell me, is it the same in France or has the country that loves its language found a way around the problem?
May 1st, 2009 at 12:12 pm
Miki – I agree – A book I have to read twice is what I call a great book!
And yes – we are lazy as a species – not all of us, but a generalization.
PS – If you like cerebral challenges, read that book!
I have only started it, but find it fascinating and challenging!
Regards,
May 1st, 2009 at 12:44 pm
Elliot, my ‘great’ books are the ones I keep forever and re-read every few years (some much more often). They are the ones that transport me, make me laugh or cry, show me other ways and worlds.
They may not be classed as great literature by the the world at large, in fact many are probably considered trivial, but they touch me and that is my litmus test for ‘great’.
May 1st, 2009 at 2:09 pm
Please keep using the “big” words. The younger generation needs to come up to our level not us go down to theirs especially in a professional environment. There are times when it is appropriate to “write down” to a certain level such as when explaining medical procedures for informed consent but in business and healthcare I hope most of us want to learn and want to be challanged and I certainly hope my doctor and nurse can read at a college level!
May 1st, 2009 at 3:38 pm
Hi Julie, I tried dumbing down a post and couldn’t do it. The only lower level grade is on Saturday’s link introductions and then not always.
For better or worse I write as I speak; way back in sixth grade I remember kids asking what some of the words I used meant, but at least they asked.
Regarding medical and similar technical areas I agree with you, but I do believe that there is a major difference between eliminating jargon/simplifying and ‘writing down’.
Thanks for visiting and adding your thoughts.
May 4th, 2009 at 5:30 am
[…] isn’t about dumbing down what you say (or write); it’s about presenting it in a wholy different way; a way that the other person can […]