Say This, Not That.

You’ve probably heard of the book- Eat This, Not That. The book helps you choose the healthier option in a world full of fattening food choices that do nothing but bloat you and make you uncomfortable.

What if we could do the same thing for the English language?

People tend to use big words when they don’t need to- in the name of corporate formality. They think it sounds more professional, and think they’re meeting all sorts of compliance rules when all they’re really doing is confusing everyone. Let’s face it: the words are not only difficult to come up with, but difficult to decipher. It’s a lose-lose situation.

This article from Workawesome points out some examples of how to combat this- and how the government might combat this in the future.

“The English language is a brilliant thing. Much like the US Constitution or a willow tree, the English language’s greatest strength is its flexibility, its adaptability, its potential for endless growth. However, our lovely language has been seriously abused in recent decades by some very smart and successful people who were just too darn lazy to bother thinking of the right word or using a perfectly clear phrase instead of a bizarre new term.”

Let this be a reminder to us all- whether we’re writing web copy, or copy for any other medium- to keep it simple. Don’t warp a word into something it isn’t, and don’t use four words when you could use two to get your point across.

Bring back plain english!