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Thierry Shang, Director, TIBCO, July 2001
How to not sound educated
Have you ever heard a police officer speak on TV when he is describing what happened? You might think he is talking about a member of some kind of elite school, instead of a criminal who was just caught.
The TV interview goes something like this:
Officer Joe: “The gentleman driving the vehicle was intercepted
while
engaging in illegal activities which involved prohibited substances and
was apprehended at the junction of 2nd and 4th streets. Myself and Officer
Jones had him lay down while we recuperated the substances from him;
he
was accompanied to the station and booked."
Off TV, the interview would be like this – with a few grammatical
corrections as well:
“We caught the man dealing drugs at the intersection of 2nd and
4th
streets. Officer Jones and I had him lie down while we took the drugs
from him; we took him to the station and booked him."
Doesn’t the policeman in the second version sound a lot smarter,
even though his vocabulary wasn’t grand?
Sounding grand isn’t only limited to TV sound bites. Many business
people use language on their web sites that is meant to inform ( impress?)
people, but it really does the opposite.
Take the explanation of a company’s training goals as stated on
their web site:
“the goal of our work is to give people the ability to re-engineer
the implementation of their job description to be ….” or…"thus,
new behavioural
demands accompany the strategic ones."
What does all that mean in practical terms? For me, not much and I didn’t bother reading on.
When we write material for other people, especially on the Web, where readers have little time or patience, it is important to get to the point fast and to write in simple, understandable English (or whatever other language you write in). Many writers, non-native speakers in particular, assume that if they use big words –as foreigners are used to doing in their own languages– they will sound cultured and knowledgeable.
However, the best thing is to stick to the old adage of KISS – keep it simple and short and everyone will be able to understand and appreciate your material.
