Comments on: Big Words Make You Seem Stupider

By: GreggB

GreggB — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 15:43:35 +0000

One can only wish that our superiors in government and industry would read and heed this. I get tired of fighting this battle over and over as a technical writer.

As one friend of mine put it, “When I was a technical writer we all strived to write as clearly and simply as possible – however – when the project managers would read it they were offended that bigger words were not used and more explanation (wordiness) was not conveyed. And they represented the customer so we of course did we as were told. So, the first rule of technical writing is that you rarely can please everyone.”

By: AshleyCampbell

AshleyCampbell — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 04:01:30 +0000

This sums it up: “When we’re children, we have small ideas and use small words, when we get a bit older we get big ideas and learn big words, but we never achieve true greatness until we learn to express big ideas in small words.” — Anon
You may also like my Writer’s Log titled “It’s not rocket science (or why jargon sucks) http://www.wordsontheweb.co.nz/writerslog.html

By: Max

Max — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 09:17:21 +0000

Holy Carp, really?

Yo Skipdub, and all yer comment-”utilizing” posse, it’s part of the joke. The Neatos are using unnecessarily dense language to convey the very premise of the post. Yeesh. Back to skool fo’ all you fools.

By: arjoon

arjoon — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 00:11:45 +0000

big words are sometime good in expressing sophisticated events

By: rawer

rawer — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 04:50:17 +0000

KISS

keep
it
simple
stupid.

if i have a hard time reading something that can be explained easily, i find another way to find it out.

By: Video Game Dork

Video Game Dork — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 06:30:58 +0000

” As the grandiosity and complexity of the language increased, the judges’ estimation of the intelligence of the authors decreased.”

I wonder if this is because the judges themselves didn’t really understand the words used, and subconciously the ‘dislike of unknown’ habit of humans provoked them to be more critical of the work. Thus, when asked about intelligence, they said ‘less!’ for the works that had more words they didn’t understand. (If that’s true, then they might have said ‘less!’ when asked to compare any other aspects, like the author’s morality, wit, humor, etc.)

By: Jay

Jay — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 12:47:10 +0000

Using polysyllabic words needlessly is also a staple of comedy. Exaggerated, over-the-top diction is common in Calvin and Hobbes, etc, for sheer comic effect.

“Never use a big word when a diminutive one will do.”

By: D Bozko

D Bozko — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 11:33:22 +0000

Skipweasel. The word is utilize and sometimes a “big” word just better conveys the thought.

By: D.W.

D.W. — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 10:24:51 +0000

Um, like, you know, basically, like, those uh, big words are definitely, like, totally, uh, like, you know, for losers.

By: Johnny Cat

Johnny Cat — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 04:21:12 +0000

It reminds me of the story of a young private school pupil who, in his essay about his loss of his sister at an early age, described his emotions. Having written about his tears he cried numerous times, he reached for the thesaurus, and found a substitute word he thought made him seem smart.

“As the lacerates rolled down my face…” he wrote, eternally securing his place in the world’s collective as Boy President extraordinaire.

By: Johnny Cat

Johnny Cat — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 04:14:29 +0000

That’s ludicrous. You’re being ignorant. Isn’t that ironic?

By: Tempscire

Tempscire — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 03:07:48 +0000

My high school teachers warned against this since usually the students reaching for the thesaurus had no idea what the connotations of the big word were, creating vaguely gibberish-like sentences.

So…duh.

By: ted

ted — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 01:17:18 +0000

Didn’t we already know this?

By: Kristofer

Kristofer — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 00:48:08 +0000

Somebody should email this article to Cory Doctorow

By: kevin

kevin — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 23:11:48 +0000

“The consequence of erudite vernacular utilized irrespective of necessity is that you wind up sounding like a moron”

see…………..GRE, where one’s ability to memorize thousands of useless words is claimed to equal projected graduate success

don’t blame the students

By: Skipweasel

Skipweasel — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 20:33:26 +0000

Aaaargh – utilise. There’s no need for it. Use use.

By: Jay

Jay — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 19:32:24 +0000

Yes, but there’s a difference between using a big word whose meaning you don’t know with using a big word because it’s the only what that means exactly what you’re trying to say. This study doesn’t really seem to demonstrate anything other than that using words that don’t mean exactly what you’re trying to say is worse than using words that do mean what you’re trying to say.