Why there’s no need to worry about dumbing down
“But doesn’t using jargon on the website make us look smart to potential customers?”
That’s what one of our clients said to us recently, his tongue only slightly in his cheek.
We’d been pushing him to explain a lot of techspeak — and to help us understand what it meant for the target buyers of his company’s new AI product.
It’s an objection that Teresa and I have encountered uncountable times in our careers: “If I make it too simple, won’t readers think we’re dumbing down?”
It’s a particular concern if, like our client, you’re rightly proud of having created a piece of super-smart technology.
But, actually, academic research has shown that using big words when you don’t need to has the opposite effect to that desired by our client. It actually makes you appear less intelligent.
And even if that weren’t the case, if you’re writing to persuade your reader — to buy your product, for example — a much more effective strategy is not to try to appear smart, but to make your reader feel smart.
If you can explain something fiendishly complex to someone so they understand it, they’re going to feel smart. And they’re going to love you for making them feel smart – which means they're much more open to persuasion.
Let's have a look at an example from a writer who’s trying too hard to impress.
‘Our mission is to leverage the expertise of our National Aeronautics talent in order to drive innovation in the delivery of world-class Aerospace Solutions.’
If you've been in the business world any longer than five minutes, you'll be familiar with this kind of language. You may even have been tempted to write like this on occasion. This is a writer trying to sound like a business insider by using words like ‘leverage’ and ‘innovation’ and ‘delivering world-class solutions.’ Words you’d never use outside the office.
One reason it's so uninspiring is it’s extremely abstract. It’s really hard to picture. For example, what does ‘leveraging expertise’ or ‘driving innovation’ actually mean? Can you picture what either of those look like? You might, but everyone’s picture will be different.
The writer doesn’t tell us what we, his audience, can do to ‘leverage expertise’. Or how we’d know if we’d been successful at it.
Let's look at how that message might have been written. In fact, how it was written.
In the actual words of John F. Kennedy:
‘I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth.’
Now, JFK was a pretty smart guy. But there's not a single fancy word in this quote. He's not trying to impress because he has the confidence in his own intellect to keep things really simple, and really human.
The language is also really clear. There's absolutely no mistaking what the goal is, and how we'll know when we've achieved it. It’s concrete, pictureable and — excuse the pun — down to earth.
And, of course, these words did persuade. They did inspire the public, politicians, and everyone at NASA, to make JFK’s dream a reality — including the janitor at heart of the story behind the Broom & Moon name.
So, if you want to similarly inspire your people to achieve a mission —or a prospect to buy — don't try to impress them. Don’t try to appear clever. Instead, a good rule of thumb is to aim your work at an intelligent fourteen-year-old.
Someone who can follow an argument, but won't necessarily understand or enjoy jargon like ‘leverage’ or ‘solutions’.
