Communication Goals Dictate Language Choices

Often, You can Either Wow with Vocabulary or Make Your Point Clear

As a professional writer, I’m quite accustomed to taking feedback from others, including hearing that I’ve missed the mark and need to rework a piece. It happens.

Only one time have I withdrawn from a project rather than make the requested changes.

The project was an article for a group within a major consulting firm about a very technical subject. The audience was sophisticated but not technically savvy. In these instances, the value I bring is my ability to write in a way that translates the experts’ knowledge into language that is more readily accessible to a non-expert audience.

The client, however, was concerned that the draft was not technical enough. I explained that, given the audience, technical terms are not appropriate and will not help them understand the points in the article. She, however, insisted that that was her goal. I’ll never forget her response.

“We want to graze the tops of their heads,” she said.

That is, she wanted the article to go over their heads, but just barely. She reasoned that a complicated piece would establish that the consultants are experts who should be hired to handle technical matters.

I countered that few people, but especially people in a position to hire consultants like her group, appreciate being made to feel dumb. Rather, you show your expertise and build trust with your audience by explaining complex matters in a way they can grasp. People don’t hire “experts” they can’t understand because how will they know they can trust them?

She refused to relent, and I ended our working relationship.

This client was a senior associate working with me on behalf of her group’s partners, and, in my opinion, she was showing her own insecurities in wanting to make what she clearly thought was a power move. She was falling into a trap documented by a team of researchers and discussed in Harvard Business Review.

The researchers found that people with relatively low professional standing tend to use much more jargon than people with relatively high standing. The same people chose more technical language when speaking to people they perceive to have greater standing than they do and simpler language with those who have less standing.

Research participants said they chose the jargon-heavy language to look good in the eyes of others and the plainer language when they were focused on being clearly understood. This confirms my personal anecdotal experience of working with people in professional settings.

My focus is effective communication, so I recommend simple language in all settings. Even if your audience is capable of deciphering your jargon, why make them work to understand you? The exception is when the audience fully understands the jargon and the jargon itself is the clearest way to convey an idea. (Consider doctors conferring among themselves on a patient’s case or mechanics discussing a project.)

Of course, if you are only trying to convey that you know lots of big words, have at it. Go nuts with “leveraging,” “bandwidth” and all the acronyms you can toss in the mix.

But if you’re communicating an idea that you want other people to understand or act on, use language that will allow your audience to fully comprehend and use the information you have to share.

What do you think? Do people who use a lot of business jargon impress you with their language or come across as insecure?