On “Dumbing Down” Your Writing to Appeal to the “Average” Reader

There seems to be some consensus, at least on across the blogosphere, that in order to appeal to the so called “average reader” and maximize readership it is necessary to “dumb down” one’s writings. In the past I have come down very hard against this idea. In particular I take issue with the idea of grade level writing, or trying to keep one’s style and grammar and vocabulary choices at or below a certain arbitrary grade level, sixth and eighth grade seem to be the most common options. The idea being that people are generally not all that smart, not that patient, and will quickly click away from anything that challenges their intellect or in which they encounter unusual words they are not familiar with. Basically anything that makes them to think too much or forces them to come to terms with their own ignorance. Recently a writing colleague on a different site responded to my insistence that I would never dumb down my writing by asking a very simple question, would it hurt to do so? She went on to explain that as a non native speaker of English it is even more difficult for her than for most to keep up with “higher level” writing and she lamented that it was very frustrating having to constantly “go up and get a dictionary” to look up words that she did not know. I will admit the non native speaker was not the stereotype of the person I had in my head when imagining these so called ordinary joe’s and jane’s, and her points had some validity. They certainly forced me to stop and think about my position, and ultimately caused me to write this piece. For that I am eminently thankful to her and her question.

However, the more I thought about what she said, in particular the dictionary comment, the more convinced I became of the rightness of my own position. After all, especially for a non native speaker, isn’t learning new words, expanding your vocabulary a good thing? Most especially for a non native speaker with aspirations of being a writer, in the English language. If you are not being challenged by what you are reading where are these new words going to come from? How will you ever expand and grow your English language and writing skills if not through challenging reading material in English? In the case of the writer I am describing here I have no doubts she has the intellectual chops to understand the most difficult of content so to be put off and basically quit reading something simply because the language is challenging seems a bad strategy. I agree with her and others when they note that many times “big” words and “fancy” vocabulary are used unnecessarily, often with an eye to impress. Please do not ever do this. It is so blatantly obvious when this is the case and it is a major turn off for everyone, average and advanced reader alike. However, I think these types of articles are the exception, not the rule.

The price you pay for challenging someone with your writing is perhaps to lose them as a reader, but the price you pay for dumbing down your writings is perhaps to deprive someone of the opportunity to challenge themselves, and to learn, and to grow as a reader, and maybe even as a person. For me, the choice is obvious and a no brainer. I will not dumb down my writing for any reason. Of course since at least 50% of what I write is really dumb to begin with this is not really asking very much. lol!