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.