There’s a well-known guy in the copywriting space who loves to use million-dollar words. He does it a lot in writing. He does it even more when giving a speech.
I’ve always wondered at this. It seems out of place in the quick-cheap-easy world of direct response. Like some kind of insecurity. Like he’s trying to prove he’s educated and smart.
If so, then bad move, at least if you go by a study I just read.
Back in 2005, a scientist at Princeton University jiggered a bunch of texts. He put in longer words into some. He put in shorter words into others. And then he put these texts in front of Stanford undergrads, to see what they would say.
I’m sure you can guess one part of what the students said. The texts with the longer words were harder to read. No surprise there.
But get this:
Students also said that longer words made the author sound less smart. And vice versa. Shorter words made the author sound more smart.
Of course, if you like, there are holes you can poke in this study:
It was only done on Stanford students, an unusual bunch. And it’s only about written texts, and not about speech.
But to my lazy mind, the conclusion is clear:
Use short words. Make your writing and speaking simple. Not because you want to sell more. That’s a nice side effect. But the real benefit is that short and simple will make you sound smarter.
And now the punchline:
Are you impressed by my 1- and 2- syllable words? Then you will love, I say love, my email news-letter. It’s full of short words. You can sign up for it here.