Yesterday we talked about “fuzzy speaking” – using euphemism to avoid talking about things directly. In general, that’s something to avoid when you’re in a work environment. Good business depends on clear communication, and the words you choose will either help or hinder understanding.

One common trap people fall into is using more words than they need to convey their meaning. Business communication is not usually the best place to use the colorful, descriptive words you might use in conversation, especially since you can’t be sure that all of your readers (or listeners) have the same command of vocabulary that you do. This is not to say that you should always avoid using the powerful vocabulary words you’re learning by using the Ultimate Vocabulary program, but you may want to save those words for an audience that can appreciate them, or for times when you need to make more of an emotional impact rather than one where you need to clearly communicate a set of facts.

As you can see from the previous paragraph, we fall into that trap as well! In brief: be brief. Use only the words you need to accomplish your goal.

Many people think that using as many polysyllabic words as will fit into a sentence is the best way to impress readers with their knowledge. However, too some people use this trick to cover up the fact that they don’t actually know what they’re talking about. If you frequently use overly-elaborate language, you might give others the impression that you’re trying to hide your lack of understanding of the topic.