It occured to me that many do it just to keep up with others they work with so that don’t appear to be less knowledgeable. The other reason might be that if many of the people you work with talk like that, you need to keep up with the conversation. You need to at least understand what the others are saying, and you can’t change other peoples idea of simple communication.

I am currently reading books written by Barack Obama and Martin Luther King Jr. I find the same difficulties in reading their books. I believe these men to be intelligent enough to know how to communicate in a simpler fashion, but still use these big or obscure words. I suspect it is in the nature of the groups of people they work with that it becomes a part of their communication whether they agree with the methods or not.

My point is that even when I read or listen to people that I respect and I believe can communicate better, they are almost forced to do so at a higher level that the average person.

So, like it or not, I think we all have to increase our vocabulary to at least keep up the those who won’t keep it simple.

Joe, I agree completely. There are instances wherein only a particular word will suffice and nothing else will cut the muster. Unfortunately, there are many people who wouldn’t know how to use a dictionary (if they even own one!) for anything more intellectually stimulating than squashing spiders.

I suppose the issue becomes what we, as writers, are seeking to accomplish. If we’re writing to convey information to readers on an intellectual level equal to our own, then we should use whatever words the work needs to do the job; if we’re writing for children, farm animals, or dullards then we must “dumb down” our vocabulary accordingly, lest we leave our readers in the dust. Neglecting to follow this simple equation will likely lead us to failure.

I tend to be a bit verbose in my writing, I think, and certainly use some wording that would have been more at-home in a previous generation. I don’t think I’m wrong for doing so, because I get my point across, convey the information I wish to transmit, and entertain my readers (many of which are intelligent and discerning persons [after all, look whose work they're reading hahaha] and aren’t derailed by my word choices)…and at the same time I’m enjoying what I do, which makes it a solid-gold win-win situation for me.