September 2008 - The Parklander Magazine

WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE
The Shorter the Better
By Bill Johnson
You will never hear a drowning man yell “Assistance!” You can’t even
imagine that. A drowning man yells “Help!” That illustrates a simple
point: short words are more powerful than long words. Short words are
also more specific than long words, which are often vague.
If you want to communicate effectively, keep in mind that shorter words
are better.
For some reason, many police officers seem to think that longer words or
inflated language equals good communication. Perhaps they think it makes
them sound more intelligent. I recently heard a police spokeswoman on
television say that “the suspect had been shot twice in the lower
extremities.” Why didn’t she say the man was shot in the legs Is “lower
extremities” clearer than “legs”
Another police officer, describing an automobile chase, said, “The suspect
drove at a high rate of speed on the surface street.” I was curious about
where else our streets may be located.
A former FBI profiler was on TV while a gunman was holding hostages
and police were blocking off an area of the city. He told us, “This is
an inconvenient time for commuters who are ‘transitioning’ from work
to home.” Do you “transition” from work to home I suspect you just
“go” home.
Police never catch people; they apprehend them. They never see
something; they observe it. Accident victims don’t suffer cuts and bruises;
they suffer contusions and abrasions. Police never fire their guns; they
discharge their firearms. They don’t bring in dogs to search for bad guys;
they bring in canines. They don’t send another police car; they dispatch
one. In the world of law enforcement, it seems bigger words are thought to
be better than shorter ones.
In court testimony, I have never heard a police officer testify, “I saw a man
run out of the building. I chased him down the street and caught him.”
But I have heard scores of police officers say something like, “I observed
the subject make egress from the building. I gave chase and apprehended
the subject.” I wonder if the officer makes egress from his home each
morning to transition to work. A police officer once told me in casual
conversation that a man’s face was beaten to a pulp with a tire iron, but
when I interviewed him for television news with the camera running, he
said, “The first thing I observed was a massive hematoma.”
Police are not alone in using big words instead of short ones and using
more words than necessary. “At this point in time,” seems to have replaced
“now” in the vocabulary of many people. Why use five words when you
can use one Does it somehow make you sound smarter
You have heard people talk about inclement weather. What is inclement
weather Why didn’t they say “rain”, “snow”, or whatever They used five
syllables when one would be more specific, better communication. Have
you noticed that there never seems to a “crisis” any more It’s always a
“crisis situation”.
In a wonderful little book by Richard Lederer, called The Miracle of
Language, he makes the case for short words by example. He writes,
“Short words are like sparks that glow in the night, prompt like the dawn
that greets the day, sharp like the blade of a knife, hot like salt tears that
scald the cheek, quick like moths that flit from flame to flame, and terse
like the dart and sting of a bee.” Every word is only one syllable. Elsewhere
he points out that the most powerful words in the English language are
short: love, hate, sex, fear, grief, etc.
Of course, there are exceptions to every rule. There are times when a
long word is the best word to use or the “right” word, but, generally,
shorter is better.
Bill Johnson is a former news reporter who covered law enforcement and
government agencies and marveled at the pretentious and inflated
language used by many professionals.
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