When Being Clever Is Stupid
Being a writer is about being good with words. But it’s more than that: it’s also about picking the words that say something in the way you want it said.
It’s all very well and good being wonderfully erudite, eloquently garrulous and sporting a lexicon of analogies that would make Shakespeare begrudgingly covetous, but… well, you can see exactly what I mean from that sentence. It’s way above the level of communication that makes sense in day-to-day life.
The important thing to remember is your audience. Make your text speak to them or they won’t listen. There’s no point in showing off your impressive vocabulary if your target audience is the average Joe: for one thing, they’ll be put off by your tone and for another they might miss your point. This also works the other way around – where dumbing down the content patronises the reader and loses their interest.
Here’s three basic rules that work very well for most writing:
- Don’t use a word that you wouldn’t use in conversation
- Don’t use a word if you have to check the meaning in a dictionary
- If you use a word or expression, make sure you use it correctly
I’d like to draw particular attention to the third point. Over the last few days, I’ve run into the following expressions on various other blogs, each of which makes the writer look a little silly:
“A tad bit” – if you’re going to try to sound “terribly British”, at least use the words properly. A tad is a bit.
“Once and awhile” – you mean “once in a while”. “Awhile” is an adverb, not a noun.
“Without further adieu” – that should be “ado”, as in “without further fuss or commotion”. “Adieu” is the French word to say “Goodbye” permanently.
“Straight to the point article” or “In depth article” - learn to use hyphens. It’s either “the article gets straight to the point” or “a straight-to-the-point article”. The latter is rather ugly. Go with the simpler form.
I’m sure there are a lot of other examples of simple mistakes, where a writer has tried to be too clever and has failed – I’d love to see your examples and hear your pet peeves.
Though preferably not ones from my work…!
