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Keep it simple: Key to impressive writing
The Times of India ^ | Tuesday, November 01, 2005 09:27:03 am | IANS

Posted on 11/01/2005 9:10:26 AM PST by CarrotAndStick

Though copy editors and popular writers have known it for long, an experiment by a psychologist establishes the key to impressive writing - keep it plain and simple.

Writers who use long words needlessly and choose complicated font styles in print are seen as less intelligent than those who employ basic vocabulary and plain text, according to new research from the Princeton University in New Jersey to be published in the next edition of Applied Cognitive Psychology.

In the study titled 'Consequences of Erudite Vernacular Utilized Irrespective of Necessity: Problems with Using Long Words Needlessly', Daniel Oppenheimer based his findings on students' responses to writing samples for which the complexity of the font or vocabulary was systematically manipulated.

In a series of five experiments, he found that people tended to rate the intelligence of authors who wrote essays in simpler language, using an easy to read font, as higher than those who authored more complex works.

"It's important to point out that this research is not about problems with using long words but about using long words needlessly," Oppenheimer was quoted as saying.

"Anything that makes a text hard to read and understand, such as unnecessarily long words or complicated fonts, will lower readers' evaluations of the text and its author."

The samples of text included graduate school applications, sociology dissertation abstracts, and translations of a work of Descartes. Times New Roman and italicized Juice font were used in samples to further assess the effect of fluency on rating levels.

Interestingly, by making people aware that the source of low fluency was irrelevant to judgement, Oppenheimer found that they overcompensated and became biased in the opposite direction.

In a final experiment, he provided samples of text printed with normal and low printer toner levels. The low toner levels made the text harder to read, but readers were able to identify the toner as being responsible for the difficulty, and therefore didn't blame the authors.

"One thing seems certain: write as simply and plainly as possible and it's more likely you'll be thought of as intelligent," Oppenheimer said.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Technical
KEYWORDS: easy; education; font; grammar; india; keepitsimple; letter; note; psychology; simplicitywins; style; writing
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To: CarrotAndStick

"In anything at all, perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away."


St. Exupery Wind, Sand, & Stars


101 posted on 11/02/2005 6:54:58 AM PST by Quality_Not_Quantity
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To: FreedomCalls

If you notice, the words used are mostly commonplace. It's the lack of coherence that kills that writing.


102 posted on 11/02/2005 8:43:22 AM PST by gcruse (http://gcruse.typepad.com/)
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To: talleyman; Thinkin' Gal
(The article author obviously missed the point of the article.)

Hee hee hee!

103 posted on 11/02/2005 10:17:59 AM PST by Lijahsbubbe
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To: TonyRo76
From Webster: comprise One entry found for comprise. Main Entry: com·prise Pronunciation: k&m-'prIz Function: transitive verb Inflected Form(s): com·prised; com·pris·ing Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French compris, past participle of comprendre, from Latin comprehendere 1 : to include especially within a particular scope 2 : to be made up of 3 : COMPOSE, CONSTITUTE usage Although it has been in use since the late 18th century, sense 3 is still attacked as wrong. Why it has been singled out is not clear, but until comparatively recent times it was found chiefly in scientific or technical writing rather than belles lettres. Our current evidence shows a slight shift in usage: sense 3 is somewhat more frequent in recent literary use than the earlier senses. You should be aware, however, that if you use sense 3 you may be subject to criticism for doing so, and you may want to choose a safer synonym such as compose or make up.
104 posted on 11/02/2005 11:23:24 AM PST by jurroppi1
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To: edsheppa

Hey friend, like Sowell? Try this:
" Since neither the creationists nor the evolutionists were there when the world began, why are our schools teaching either set of beliefs, when there are so many hard facts that the schools are failing to teach?"
From: http://www.townhall.com/opinion/column/thomassowell/2005/11/29/177141.html


105 posted on 12/03/2005 10:32:07 AM PST by guitarist
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To: edsheppa

To make a non-crevo point: Sowell is perhaps the clearest writer out there. I constantly recommend him to my teen-age kids. When Walter Williams was subbing for Rush and had Sowell on as a guest, I said it was not fair for them both to be there, smarter than everyone else. And now this article tells hapless me that it's only cuz their writing and speaking has been dumbed down for me!!


106 posted on 12/03/2005 10:48:05 AM PST by guitarist
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To: guitarist
Ah, so you've now established that Sowell is as poor a scientist as Bethell. What is it about science related policy questions that causes these people to stop thinking clearly? I mean, if I were to ask Sowell "since none of use were around at the time of the American revolution, why are our schools teaching anything about it" do you think he'd come up with a good answer?

What is it Coulter says, shut up and sing? Political analysts should take that to heart snd either stick to their knitting or actually learn something about science.

107 posted on 12/03/2005 10:59:51 AM PST by edsheppa
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To: edsheppa

We have established that if you express doubt on Darwinian evolution, you will be painted as an idiot by many. That's par for the course. But what about global warming? If you doubt the majority scientific view on that, many experts will again paint you as an idiot and dangerous.


108 posted on 12/03/2005 11:17:08 AM PST by guitarist
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To: guitarist
Let's be clear. My opinion about evolution is derived from what I have learned about it and about science in general. (And, yes, I've also read Behe and Dembski et al, understand their arguments and have found their work very weak.) IOW, I have actually looked into it and thought about it, unlike most anti-Es who really are ignorant. If only I had a dollar for every time and anti-E asks why there are still apes if humans evolved from apes. And the thing is, with the information available on the internet, such ignorance is clearly willful.

Now, global warming? Yes, the best evidence is that the globe is warming. For years the satellite and ground measurements diverged and so I was skeptical, but lately errors have been found and acknowledged in the satellite analysis. I would not be at all suprised if additional errors weren't found. It's is pretty clear the earth is warming.

Is it, as they say, "anthropogenic?" Possibly but the evidence for this is quite weak - largely based on climate models. I think the historical temperature data shows clearly that climate is chaotic within a large band on a time scale of thousands of years. Without models that have clearly tracked climate for a very significant part of that time, how can one have much faith it them? But, as I say, it is possible.

Whatever the source, should we be worried? I think not. I predict that within a half century it will be feasible to control the earth's energy budget to a sufficient extent to avoid continued warming.

109 posted on 12/03/2005 3:35:37 PM PST by edsheppa
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To: CarrotAndStick
Never use a long Latin word where a short English one will do. - George Orwell
110 posted on 12/03/2005 3:37:44 PM PST by JasonC
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To: Red Badger
Brevity is the soul of wit

As a young man on the day of an examination or of a duel feels the question that he has been asked, the shot he has fired, to be very insignificant when he thinks of the reserves of knowledge and of valor that he would like to have displayed, so my mind, which had lifted the Virgin of the Porch far above the reproductions that I had had before my eyes, invulnerable to the viscissitudes which might threaten them, intact even if they were destroyed, ideal, endowed with a universal value, was astonished to see the statue which it had carved a thousand times, reduced now to its own stone semblance, occupying, in relation to the reach of my arm, a place in which it had for rivals an election poster and the point of my stick, fettered to the square, inseparable from the opening of the main street, powerless to hide from the gazed of the cafe and of the omnibus office, receiving on its face half the ray of the setting sun (and presently, in a few hours' time, of the light of the street lamp) of which the savings bank received the other half, invaded simultaneously with that branch office of a loan society by the smells from the pastry-cook's oven, subjected to the tyranny of the Particular to such a point that, if I had chosen to scribble my name upon that stone, it was she, the illustrious Virgin whom until then I had endowed with a general existence and an intangible beauty, the Virgin of Balbec, the unique (which meant, alas, the only one), who, on her body coated with the same soot as defiled the neighboring houses, would have displayed--powerless to rid herself of them--to all the admiring strangers come there to gaze upon her, the marks of my piece of chalk and the letters of my name, and it was she, finally, the immortal work of art so long desired, whom I found transformed, as was the church itself, into a little old woman in stone whose height I could measure and whose wrinkles I could count.

Any big words in there? --Proust

111 posted on 12/03/2005 3:57:39 PM PST by RightWhale (Not transferable -- Good only for this trip)
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To: RightWhale

I ran across a sentence the other day, and it nearly flattend my tires.......


112 posted on 12/05/2005 5:18:44 AM PST by Red Badger (There are no female angels..............)
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To: Our man in washington

If it does not produce lines of code, it’s not good productive time for a project manager or team leader. Let the tech writer straighten it out until it’s time to drop her from the project.


113 posted on 10/02/2011 5:09:18 PM PDT by GAB-1955
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To: CarrotAndStick

Monosyllabic isn’t monosyllabic.


114 posted on 10/02/2011 5:13:23 PM PDT by ThomasThomas ( Congressmen should wear uniforms like NASCAR drivers, so we can identify their corporate sponsors.)
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To: Xenalyte
Another one along those lines is to use good old Anglo-Saxon words instead of Latin derived words if you have a choice, which in English is fairly often, because they tend to be earthier and more direct. According to Ronald White in his book The Eloquent President, this is something that Abe Lincoln did and is part of what makes his writings and speeches so good.
115 posted on 10/02/2011 5:38:57 PM PDT by Yardstick
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To: Paul C. Jesup

The concept is nuncupatory.

—Jack Vance

Freegards


116 posted on 10/02/2011 6:16:06 PM PDT by Ransomed
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To: CarrotAndStick

13. Omit needless words.


117 posted on 10/02/2011 6:21:42 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: CarrotAndStick

I disagree. “The use of complicated wording as an overall literary technique needs to encompass graphic and individual comprehension to allow the reader to become acquainted with the unique terminological aspects employed by the author whilst not detracting from the application of the specific innuendos influencing the particular methods involved which reflect the tone of the major works in question, thereby altering the quality of the outcome.”


118 posted on 10/02/2011 6:24:04 PM PDT by Revolting cat! (Let us prey!)
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To: GAB-1955

Got a point there. By the way, I’ve never had someone respond to a comment from six years ago before!


119 posted on 10/03/2011 2:16:23 PM PDT by Our man in washington
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