Eloquence
- fluent or persuasive in speaking or writing
- clearly expressing or indicating something
Definition from Oxford languages
Have you ever come across a post that is filled with big words such as perennial, desecrate or impertinent, just to name a few? Well, I have. And those three big words that I mentioned, I read all 3 in just one sentence. Some people write this way 'coz they like to showcase their eloquence. Nothing wrong with that though, if your goal is to impress your readers with your wide vocabulary. It is impressive don't get me wrong it's just that if you write this way you're only reaching out to those people who are as eloquent as you, if not more eloquent.
I don't really use big words so much. I made a decision a long, long time ago that if I'm gonna write.. I'm gonna write for the general public. You see these other writers showing off their eloquence by using big word after big word in their articles all in one sentence. And that's just one sentence, imagine reading a whole article. If a person reading an article is not as eloquent as the person who wrote it I doubt he would continue reading after the first paragraph.
I try to make my write up as easy to follow as possible by writing it in plain English. 'Coz if you really think about it, if you wanted to share your story or opinion on a certain topic would you really write it in a way that isn't easy to understand? I mean, come on! Most people don't like reading and if these people, by some miracle decided to read something, they want something that is written in a way where they don't have to look up a word in a dictionary or Google.
There are only a handful of people who can speak and understand words in the dictionary that are rarely used by the general population. These people can insult a not-so-eloquent person using big words and get away with it. Although, I doubt he's achieved his goal of belittling the man if the person he is insulting doesn't understand what was said to him.
An insult such as,
You are an ignoramus & indolent mortal. You will only contrived to accomplished only a cropper.
It took me about 10 minutes to construct this sentence searching for synonyms and I don't even know if I'm grammatically correct. Let's see how long it is for you to search for the meaning of the words and understand the insult.
Or I could just rephrase it for you.😁
Well, if I wrote it in plain English it would look like this,
You are a stupid & lazy person. You will only manage to accomplish failure.
See what I mean. That wasn't so hard was it.
I felt the same way when I started reading feature articles in newspapers back when I was still in 5th grade. My schoolpaper advisor told me to read and learn from the professionals write-up so I have an idea on how to write feature stories. And I didn't have a wide vocabulary before so I had a difficulty in going through the articles. And that's when I decided to make my stories as easy to follow as possible. As I didn't want my reader's to go through the same difficulties as I did.
And that's also the reason why I only follow content creators whose writing are easy to understand. If I read something that makes me go back and forth googling words and reading the article, I give up and move on to the next post. There's just so many posts to read and so little time do I really have to waste my time looking up words on the internet. The time I spend on googling words could be time spent in reading more posts that are of great quality and are easy to follow.
But not to say that I avoid posts with big words though. I still read write-ups that has big words in it for as long as the author doesn't overdo it. Some articles have so many big words in it, it ruins the flow of the story. At least for the ones who do not have a wide vocabulary.(which accounts for almost everybody)😁
Which raises the question, do you become eloquent by using a lot of big words?
By definition; eloquence means clearly expressing or indicating something.
So if you're using too many big words in your article and the readers are having difficulties following your story, would you consider yourself eloquent?
I think to be eloquent you just have to be easily understood even if you don't use a lot of big words in your write-up. Eloquence doesn't require you to use a lot of big words that no one really ever uses or understand. If that's how you write you're only decreasing the number of people who can understand your story. Now, is that what you really want or do you want a bigger audience.
So how eloquent should you be?
I think you need to consider which audience you are trying to reach out to. If you already have a wide vocabulary then that's good 'coz that gives you more flexibility. You can write stories for the average Joe and you can also do the same for the highly educated individuals.
I think it all comes down to how you write your story whether you're using big words or not. 'Coz even if you use big words from time to time, if the reader can still understand the word(even if they don't know the meaning of the word) based on the flow of the story then that to me is a true sign of eloquence.
And that's the end of the post.
Thank you for making it to the end I hope you enjoyed reading it.
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Cover photo taken from my phone.