1. Welcome to SportsJournalists.com, a friendly forum for discussing all things sports and journalism.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register for a free account to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Access to private conversations with other members.
    • Fewer ads.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Showing off your vocabulary in articles...yay or nay?

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Jim Luther Davis, Jun 6, 2014.

  1. Yeah, but why make that assumption that every one of your readers is just as well-read?
     
  2. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    I don't think it's good for anybody if a writer is pausing 15 times in a 500-word story to say "Do I sound like I'm smarter than a fifth-grader? I shouldn't do that."
     
  3. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    Because I'm a tough guy.
     
  4. MisterCreosote

    MisterCreosote Well-Known Member

    Of course not. That's why you shouldn't lay off the editors who keep them in check. :)
     
  5. PaperDoll

    PaperDoll Well-Known Member

    I would prefer to think my readers are well-read and not treat them otherwise... but I have also read our online comments. ::)
     
  6. TopSpin

    TopSpin Member

    Yay if playing Scrabble. Nay in sports writing.
     
  7. jr/shotglass

    jr/shotglass Well-Known Member

    You should have had a pretty good idea that you're not writing for a 13th-grade level long before online comments arrived.
     
  8. Riptide

    Riptide Well-Known Member

    "Cognizant" is hardly a complicated word in this context. It's fairly mainstream, after all.

    But obscure words and unfamiliar foreign phrases are a quick sign that a newspaper writer is showing off, not writing to his audience.
     
  9. doctorquant

    doctorquant Well-Known Member

    Don't make me pull out my sine qua non and pop you upside your vis à vis ...
     
  10. Riptide

    Riptide Well-Known Member

    Yo mama.
     
  11. DanOregon

    DanOregon Well-Known Member

    I always have a problem with writers who use "big" words when regular words would work just as well. Every now and then I'll come across a word or phrase that seems to come out of nowhere pop up in stories from a variety of authors and I suspect that it is part of a game writers play with each other.
     
  12. 93Devil

    93Devil Well-Known Member

    I think people here would be surprised what is a fifth or sixth grade reading level.

    https://www.lexile.com/findabook/

    Lexiles are developed by Scholastic who are slowly getting a monopoly on school reading.

    Check sixth grade and "what I read in school is just about right." Then choose the type of books and submit. I think you will find the results interesting.
     
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page