According to a recent study, the answer is a resounding “No”! All good copywriters know that good writing is simple writing. Using big words unnecessarily does not make you sound smarter.
As the website Copyblogger puts it, “To sound smart, you must stop trying to sound smart.” So here are nine practical tips that I follow every day:
1. Have something to say – don’t write for the sake of it or you end up with meaningless waffle.
2. Choose the simplest word – ‘use’ instead of ‘utilise’, ‘help’ instead of ‘facilitate’.
3. Use ‘the active voice’ wherever possible – passive sentences bore people.
4. Write short sentences – they’re easier to read and understand.
5. Keep paragraphs short too – our brains take in small chunks of information better.
6. Eliminate fluff words – qualifiers like ‘very’, ‘little’ and ‘rather’ add nothing but suck the life out of your sentences.
7. Don’t ramble.
8. Don’t repeat yourself by being tempted to say the same thing in different ways.
9. Edit ruthlessly – shorten sentences, rewrite and delete unnecessary words that don’t add to your meaning.
One final tip: if you can, avoid sending off copy on the day you write it. I prefer to leave my writing to stew overnight. Invariably, the next morning, I’ll see obvious ways I can improve it.
To sum up, big words don’t make you sound smarter. In fact, using long words often achieves the opposite effect. If you want to sound smart, keep it simple!
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