One of the best pieces of advice I've ever received is to state things simply and clearly whenever possible.
This advice does not apply to all situations. If you are writing a novel, poetry or a Scholastic Article do not follow this advice.
I'm talking about a situation where you want a lot of people to understand a point.
If you are relaying important information.
If you are trying to sell someone your idea
Avoid words with ambiguous meanings, avoid Internal Jargon, and use technical terms only where needed.
If you have something important to say and you want people to comprehend it. This is not the time to show off your fabulous vocabulary and yet, I watch people do it every day.
Generally speaking, I find people who use too many words to make a simple point are:
There is no need to talk past your point.
Yes, I do it too. I was so wordy and careful not to hurt people's feelings when I was younger, that everything I wanted to say was lost in a sea of words.
I once had to fire someone and I was trying to be nice and I was nervous. I babbled on about how this might not be working out for about a 1/2 hour. I was so bad at delivering a message that the person showed up for work the next day. :) True story. Very Awkward.
The average person on the street has an 8th-grade education.
If people have to work to understand what you are saying they miss the message.
Just say it. Instead of finding the most complex words, find the simplest ones.
The message isn't about your ego or your vocabulary, it is about someone else being able to understand what you say.
To give a perfect example I'm going to tease SteemIt Inc. a bit. I've heard several people in their organization use the words. Reduce Cognitive Overload. It cracks me up every single time. Obviously, they do not understand their own goal. It means... Make it easy to understand.
Before you tell me they are just that smart, I have never questioned their intelligence, but I do question their wisdom.
Feel free to use "Reduce Cognitive Overload" in your internal meetings, but don't communicate like that to an International community with varying degrees of ability to read and understand English.
Just use the KISS Model.
Keep it Simple Stupid.
