SAT words may render you ... impecunious?
True confessions time … how often, when writing, do you resort to the high school English class approach of looking up a synonym in a thesaurus? Now, to be fair, I’m not talking about a sincere effort to avoid over-used words, but rather an attempt to use words that make the piece “sound better.”
The problem is that most times those words do just the opposite.
Here’s an example from Scott Adams (The Dilbert Principle):
“I utilized a multi-tined tool to process a starch resource.” OR: “I used a fork to eat a potato.”
Sure, that seems extreme. But I think that’s only because you actually know how to translate that sentence. Think about how often you receive a memo or report and simply have no idea what a sentence or paragraph means. Sometimes you can figure it out through context clues, but should you have to work that hard?
The reality is that most business readers enjoy reading a piece that flows – one that sounds as though you walked over to their office and delivered it orally. One that isn’t peppered with all kinds of SAT-worthy words, because frankly we’ve all done that!
This doesn’t mean that your writing should be simplistic, rushed, careless, or sloppy. It just means that sometimes – most times – you should write it the way you’d say it.
Of course the beauty of a written piece is that you can review and refine, instead of having to live with whatever popped out of your mouth when you were asked a question. So, when reviewing and refining be sure that sentences flow, that you’ve communicated things as concisely as possible, and that the piece meets your audience’s needs. But don’t go synonym-happy! Chances are if you didn’t think of the word the first time around, it’s a word that will make your piece sound artificial. And your writing should be an extension of you. Leave the heavy lifting to Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky & the like.
Impecunious: without money. Who knew?
