Saturday, January 29, 2011

Who is your audience?

I keep up with many people through blogs. It's fun, and I enjoy it, but I can't help but notice that some writing speaks clearly to me and some just...well, doesn't. Being an English major, I really like big words. They make me feel smart, and I like being able to rattle them off and actually know what they mean. I might even drop a few here and there in this blog. But the question I think every writer should ask themselves is this: Does my audience understand what I'm saying?

If you're only aiming to impress people with your massive use of grammatical vocabulary, then by all means, keep writing your glamorous prose. But if you really want your audience to think about what you're writing, then you might want to keep your language free from confusing words.

This is something I struggle with sometimes. Like I said, I really like my big words. But what I like even more is when I can allow my audience to think about the meaning behind the words, instead of just wondering what the heck those words meant.

If I do nothing more than that, than making my language clear and understandable, then I really do believe I've done my job as a writer. Though I might drop a challenge or two along the way. A broader vocabulary never hurt anyone, after all.

2 comments:

Dave (aka Buckskins Rule) said...

As an avid reader, and reasonably intelligent person, I feel that I possess a fairly decent vocabulary. When I first started blogging, I would agonize over the style and quality of my writing, spending more time editing than it took to put the thoughts on virtual paper.

Somewhere along the way, I realized that it didn't matter, and I pay less attention to the details, and concentrate on relaying my thoughts.

One thing I do not appreciate is those who use large words which are no longer part of the common lexicon. If the reader has to spend half the time in a dictionary, then the meaning is lost, and the writer tends to come of as the "I'm smarter than you" type.

Dave (aka Buckskins Rule) said...

Hey, Kat, I left you an award over at my place.