Post on 04-Jan-2016
Comm361: Online Journalism
The Need for Simple English on the Web
Steve Klein
Adjunct Professor, GMU
Steve Klein
Online Journalism: The Need for Simple English on the Web
There has never been a greater need to write clear, simple English.
Steve Klein
Online Journalism: The Need for Simple English on the Web
"After removing client-sensitive information, we develop 'knowledge objects' by pulling key pieces of knowledge such as interview guides, work schedules, benchmark data, and market segmentation analyses out of documents and storing them in the electronic repository for people to use."
Steve Klein
Online Journalism: The Need for Simple English on the Web
That statement by a manager at a large consulting firm sounds very impressive on the surface. However:
Just what is a "knowledge object?" What exactly is an "electronic repository?"
Steve Klein
Online Journalism: The Need for Simple English on the Web
Could this "knowledge object" be that thing we used to call a "document" back in the good old days?
Steve Klein
Online Journalism: The Need for Simple English on the Web
Could an "electronic repository" in fact be an intranet?
Steve Klein
Online Journalism: The Need for Simple English on the Web
The need to over-complicate language must be a deep and compelling one.
Steve Klein
Online Journalism: The Need for Simple English on the Web
Or:
If you can't dazzle them with diamonds, baffle them with BS.
Steve Klein
Online Journalism: The Need for Simple English on the Web
The Web is sinking in BS, and users are not impressed.
Steve Klein
Online Journalism: The Need for Simple English on the Web
There is an urgent need to get back to basics.
Steve Klein
Online Journalism: The Need for Simple English on the Web
There is an urgent need to write in plain English or plain German, plain French, plain Japanese, plain Spanish, or whatever language.
Steve Klein
Online Journalism: The Need for Simple English on the Web
Writing is about communicating.
Steve Klein
Online Journalism: The Need for Simple English on the Web
If your reader requires a dictionary of slang in order to wade through your content, chances are you won't have too many readers.
Steve Klein
Online Journalism: The Need for Simple English on the Web
"Those who write clearly have readers, those who write obscurely have commentators."
-- Albert Camus
Steve Klein
Online Journalism: The Need for Simple English on the Web
How do you know amateur writing?
Steve Klein
Online Journalism: The Need for Simple English on the Web
It's verbose. It uses lots of complicated words. It takes four pages to say what can
be said in one.
Steve Klein
Online Journalism: The Need for Simple English on the Web
The irony of simple writing is that it's hard to do.
Steve Klein
Online Journalism: The Need for Simple English on the Web
Complexity is often a mask behind which the writer who doesn't quite understand what they are writing about hides.
Steve Klein
Online Journalism: The Need for Simple English on the Web
"If it is possible to cut a word, always cut it."
-- George Orwell
Steve Klein
Online Journalism: The Need for Simple English on the Web
The Web is the world of the impatient reader.
Users scan their way across text, looking for the meaning, the relevance.
Steve Klein
Online Journalism: The Need for Simple English on the Web
On the Web, we have learned to read by classification:
Is it in this section of the website or that one?
Steve Klein
Online Journalism: The Need for Simple English on the Web
Unlimited choice scares users. Complex language confuses them. Long convoluted documents turn
them off.
Steve Klein
Online Journalism: The Need for Simple English on the Web
Time is our scarcest resource.
The less time we have, the more our attention span contracts.
Steve Klein
Online Journalism: The Need for Simple English on the Web
Write simply. Keep headings, summaries,
sentences, paragraphs and documents short.
Get to the point. Then stop.