Choose words carefully
Read and learn
These simple style points, were written by George Orwell back in 1946 in his masterful essay ‘Politics and the English Language’. They remain acutely relevant today:
- Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
- Never use a long word where a short one will do.
- If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
- Never use the passive where you can use the active.
- Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an every day English equivalent.
- Break any of these rules rather than say anything outright barbarous.
As he adds, it is possible to follow all of these rules and still write bad English. But it’s a lot harder to do.
Think of your reader
‘The consumer is not an idiot, she’s your wife’ an adman once said. She’s your mother too, and she may well not understand technology in the same way that we do, but she’s not stupid.
Don’t waste your time trying to tell (or sell) her stuff that she’s not interested in. Don’t use language that she won’t understand, you’ll bore her.
Think of your client
You wouldn’t spend a lot of money just for the pleasure of having your own words rearranged and presented back to you.
Don’t regurgitate briefing documents in proposals unless you’re adding something, or quoting the source in order to make a point. Tell the client something new - it’s what they’re paying for.
Keep one eye on Pseud’s Corner*
In the online and IT world, it’s common to use language that has a different meaning in the real world.
The danger is, it is not understood and can make us look very pretentious, think what ’stretch’, ‘ownership’ and ‘platform’ mean to your mum.
*If you’re not familiar with Private Eye, you should be.
If you’re not sure what a word means, don’t use it.
If you mean motivate, write ‘motivate’ not ‘incentivise’, if you mean ‘function’, don’t say ‘functionality’.
Your reader may well be better educated then you are, don’t try to impress with your vocabulary, you can end up like a damn fool (and no one will want to pay you).