The more you know about your field of expertise, the harder it is to talk about it simply and understandably. This phenomenon is known as the curse of knowledge and can cost your business dearly.
Plain language means writing so that the target audience understands, finds and can use the information. While the public sector is getting better and better, much of the business world is lagging behind.
That's not how it should be. Bad language costs money.
Here's some free help on how to write simply and clearly: AG&'s 15 tips for writing clearly and well.
Does your target audience understand what you're saying?
The more you know, and the more complicated the subject you know, the greater the chance that you'll cackle away without the person you're talking to having any idea what you're talking about.
For researchers and scientists, this has a name of its own: The Curse of Knowledge.
It simply means that people who know a lot often can't bring themselves to realize that others don't know as much as they do. That's why they use difficult words and millimetre-precise technical terms that ordinary people don't understand.
The phenomenon may be most common among Nobel Prize winners, but many companies also suffer from the curse of knowledge. And the more specialized the company, the more common it is.
Bad language costs you customers
Of course, it makes a difference whether you're selling to businesses or private individuals, and whether the people buying your product or service have as much professional expertise as you or not.
If your customers are private individuals, you often know more than they do. It's good to have professional weight, but nobody likes to feel stupid. And if they don't understand why the most expensive model or service is better than the cheap one, they'll buy the cheap one. Where should you start? Our recommendation is to start with the low-hanging fruit:
- Make sure the most important information is presented clearly and early.
- Replace foreign words and technical terms if there is a risk that many in the target group will not understand them.
- Make sure that headings tell what the text is about.
- Break up long sentences. Write briefly and clearly.
- Noun sickness, chancel language, passive sentences are common symptoms of unnecessarily difficult language.