In my experience, most of it stems from social pressure. “Dumbing something down”, while still getting your messege across is frowned upon in our society. So we adapt to please others and avoid stigmas. Fitting in is just as prevalent in our adult years as it was in grade-school.

I think it’s funny that we spend so much time using large words in place of small words that mean the same, but at the same time, we are a society that is obsessed with time conservation.

All in all; great article. Makes you think. Although, sometimes thinking too much and over-analyzing can make me feel depressed. Time to go watch a video of kittens playing.

Robyn it does depend a lot on the context, but I think in many professional and academic contexts (like the research quoted in this piece) people use long words to appear in the know (even though it doesn’t actually work, according to the research anyway)

Judy yes, if the right word is a long word, indeed – but not if a long word is chosen for the sake of it, to try and demonstrate some kind of intellectual superiority? I guess it comes down to intention, and what and how you are trying to communicate

Mark it does seem to depend on context and the kind of environment you’re working and writing in

We desperately want to seperate ourselves from the “norm”. We will use whatever means possible.

I am guilty of using larger words because I feel an intense pressure to do so.

I am against pretentiousness in whatever form it takes, but to advocate ‘short words’ rather than ‘long words’ on the grounds that they are more easily understood, smacks of ‘dumbing down’. If the reader doesn’t understand a longer word, let them look it up and increase their own vocabulary in the process.

Our wonderful English language has taken centuries (and a few invasions!) to reach the richness of choice that we enjoy today. Let’s treasure this and make full use of it, not in order to try to look more ‘intelligent’ – of course not! – but because it enables us to write and speak with greater clarity and precision than almost any other language in the world!

Funny thing is that people who have humility usually want to speak in terms that the average person can understand, as well.

C.S. Lewis calls this, “simplicity beyond complexity.”

Why do I use big words? Words are frozen concepts. It’s such a pleasure when you learn a word that “unfreezes” a concept that was locked into smaller words. I remember being so happy when I was five as I learned the word “inclusive.” It had a concept of non-ownership that did not limit if possession was mine or yours. To include was more global than to share. To share meant it belonged to someone in the first place. Inclusiveness meant it had always belonged to everyone.

As a kid, faced with the solution to not wanting to intimidate, instead I let out all my breath and talked as if I wasn’t thinking about what I was about to say. It didn’t work. It was really my height that was intimidating. “Alligator! Mississippi! How would I know what’s a big word unless you tell me you don’t get it?” As a writer, your reader can’t tell you they don’t get it.

An attempt to simplify language is how creoles are invented. What if, (without meaning to do so,) we’re inventing a world-wide creole in our ongoing quest to simplify language use? I should know about that, I live in Hawaii where the teachers have to talk Pigeon to reach the kids, who live in houses where books rot. You can’t talk about ideas much in Pigeon, and as a result, kids stay really ignorant if they don’t refuse to stop speaking it. Limited words can quickly descend into to saying nothing.

The discipline of writing about a complex, subjective topic to a person who uses English as a second language is eye-opening. I love it when people say to me: “I understand you, but would someone who didn’t have this unique, exclusive experience get it?” People always think other people are stupider than they are. If you don’t “talk up” to someone and assume they’ll understand complex meanings, you’re talking down to them. Strangely enough, you’ll get the same complaint in the other direction. When those intelligent people can’t imagine the person I was writing to was a really intelligent kid from Pakistan, they’ll accused me of being ‘”patronizing” and “insulting” to them by articulating the obvious.

It’s far more effective writing to get rid of complex sentence structure. Big words aren’t the problem so much as dangling modifiers, interchangeable prepositions, run-on sentences and dependent clauses.

One reason people write in confusing ways, using complex words, is because they don’t understand enough about the subject to deliver it simply. They’re parroting the way the information was delivered to them. But the other reason is some people can’t anticipate the ways in which others will find it difficult to understand them.

The urge to be easily understood; maybe that’s an urge for someone who will finish my sentences, who can read my mind. Then I can just get what I want without putting out any effort…

Crafty Green Poet I can’t ever think of a reason to throw in jargon for the sake of it. Simplicity and clarity will always be more appropriate, no matter who is reading it!

Odysseus indeed, there are times when people will deliberately choose to use long words.