We talk about writing in plain language so that a person can understand and use the information. Someone said something a while back that suggested a person could “use” information if it was in a brochure that they could refer to when needed. This led me to thinking about my different perspective.
I think using information means knowing it and being able to retrieve it from memory whenever it is needed. No reference document. It may be I think this way because of my long experience in training and curriculum design for adults.
I am now pondering the extent to which my internalization of the principles of adult education has influenced my approach to plain language writing and editing.
Just wanted to let you know why I have not been posting. I am working on a new plain language writing manual for general use (meaning not for legal writers) and I am thinking through some issues like this.
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In case you need evidence, Ray Ward summed it up awhile ago:
I just finished reading Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive (hat tip to the [non]billable hour). One of the 50 ways confirms something Bryan Garner says in The Winning Brief (p. 177, 2d ed.): people who use plain language are perceived as smarter and more persuasive than people who do the opposite:
“… Take, for example, the fact that communicators frequently try to convey their erudition via their grandiloquent, magniloquent, sesquipedalian verbosity; in other words, they try to look smart by using unnecessarily long words or overly technical jargon….
“… [R]esearch by [Daniel] Oppenheimer has shown that using overly complex language like this can produce the exact opposite of the intended effect: Because the audience has difficulty interpreting the language, the message is deemed less convincing and the author is perceived to be less intelligent.”
In an endnote, the Yes! authors cite D.M. Oppenheimer, Consequences of erudite vernacular utilized irrespective of necessity: Problems with using long words needlessly, Applied Cognitive Psychology, 20:139–56.
So there you have it: scientific proof that plain language aids persuasion.
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