Freelance Writers: Is Your Writing Too Sesquipedalian?
Not sure what it is? Read on to see how to improve your writing.
My sister and I love talking about unusual words and I hate to admit it, but we’re both as bad as each other for correcting people’s grammar and pronunciation. In the pursuit of world peace, we try not to mention it out loud. But if you know either of us in real life, you can be sure we’re silently correcting you in our heads. We’re very ashamed about this, so a heartfelt apology goes out to anyone I’ve ever met…just in case.
Why sesquipedalian?
We were talking yesterday, and she mentioned a word she’d picked up from the fantastic ‘No Such Thing as a Fish’ podcast. (If you get a chance to listen to it and you love interesting and bizarre facts, then do. I’m not affiliated with them in any way, although I’d sell my granny to be their friend 😄.)
It all relates to sesquipedalian, which means a polysyllabic or long word. It can also be used as an adjective to describe someone or something that needlessly overuses long or complicated words, like a college professor or published writing.
If you add the suffix phobia, this gives you sesquipedalophobia or the fear of polysyllabic or long words. You can also add prefixes implying great or large, such as the Greek hippopoto and Latin monstro, to get the spectacular hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia.
Tragically, that Frankenstein’s monster of a word is not in any respected dictionary. It was created by some literary wit (sadly, the actual inventor is shrouded in mystery) and has been ironically adopted as describing a fear of long words.
Getting into the dictionary just needs the power of the people. If there are enough uses of a word and it enters common speech, then it could qualify instead of fading into insignificance and distant memory.
For example, in 2022, the Oxford English Dictionary added crowdfunding and metaverse as two of their new words, but sadly, hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia was not included. (Yet! I live in hope!)
Meanwhile, back to the topic at hand. Sesquipedalian is in dictionaries and although it isn’t medically recognized as a phobia, if your writing includes long and complicated words, you can guarantee it’s turning your readers off in droves.
How to solve the problem
I’m going to start with an assumption: you want people to read your writing. That is, after all, one of the reasons why we write. We want to provide value and potentially solve problems.
It can be tempting to want to impress these readers, and of course your clients, with long or complicated words. It can make you sound smart and knowledgeable, and you can be smug because not everyone reading your article will be familiar with such elevated words.
And therein lies the problem.
If readers have to stop and look up the words you’re using, or if they have to reread sentences more than once to understand their meaning, then it won’t be long before they give up and move on to another story that’s easier to read.
You don’t want your writing to be difficult to understand. You want to engage users, give them information that will enrich their life or be useful to them, not cause them to have PTSD about being in a difficult calculus class in high school.
It can also make your writing sound pretentious and pompous, and there’s no quicker way to ruin your reputation as a writer and turn people off. You don’t want it to be a chore for your readers to consume your writing. They should want to read more, and if it’s too complicated to understand, that won’t happen.
What to do instead
Employ simplicity
This leads us back to the common rule of ‘writing as you speak’, so that your pieces sound conversational. Choose words that an 8th grader would understand and are simple to pronounce. That way, it’s easier to read and will communicate your ideas much more effectively.
Unless you’re writing a highly technical article, all your ideas should be able to be conveyed with simple language.
Familiarity
If you’re tempted to use a word that sounds impressive but you’re not quite sure what it means, then ignore that temptation. If you’re unfamiliar with it, chances are your readers will be too, and you may even be using it incorrectly.
Choose simpler words that you and your readers will definitely know and understand.
Jargon has its place
If you know you’re writing for a specialized audience who will be familiar with specific technical terms and some jargon, then by all means use it.
However, make sure you don’t use any unnecessarily, and if you do, always explain them clearly and concisely.
Dangers of a thesaurus
Thesauruses (or thesauri, depending on your preference) can be useful for finding a synonym or an alternate word, but it’s vital you don’t overuse them.
Don’t constantly dip into a thesaurus as a way of impressing your readers. It’ll end up being counterproductive and turn those potential fans away faster than you can look up a synonym for the speed of light.
Proof that it works
Don’t just take my word for it. Daniel M. Oppenheimer, professor of psychology at Carnegie Mellon University, carried out a study on the use of long words when he was at Princeton.
Yes, quite!
It makes more sense when you add the subtitle, “Problems with using long words needlessly.”.
He found that although there are many cases where simplicity and clear word use is recommended, the majority of undergraduates he interviewed still tried to use complicated words in an effort to make themselves sound more intelligent.
However, his study showed exactly the opposite. The more complex the text, the harder it was to read. Consequently, the overriding view from the participants of his study, was that the writers of these complicated texts were not particularly intelligent. The majority chose the writers of simpler texts that were easier to understand as the ones who had superior knowledge and were more intelligent.
For one of his experiments, he provided text in a font that was tricky to read. This also made the participants judge the writers as less intelligent and less worthy of attention.
So, overall, this particular study showed overwhelmingly that simple language (and fonts) were easier to understand, and gave readers a higher overall view of the writer and their intelligence.
Conclusion
To retain the gratification of your perusers, act in accordance with this guidance and circumvent interminable and labyrinthine designations in your communication.
Yuck!
Stop using long and complicated words in your writing. Create clear, easy-to-read, concise and engaging content and your readers will love you.
