You don’t need a degree in literature to be an effective communicator. You don’t even need a formal language education to be able to express yourself. Relating your ideas to a shared understanding of the world with your audience, in simple words, is the key to successful messaging. In so doing, you do two things: you gain your audience’s confidence by indicating an awareness of their concerns and you make yourself unambiguously understood by using simple language.
If you prefer, you can view a visual representation of this article on my channel on YouTube below.
Relate to the Audience
If you have been visiting my website regularly, you know that I prioritize addressing an idea from the audience’s point of view. You can see this in how I characterize my white paper solutions. You can also read about this in my differentiation between white papers and research papers. For ideas to register with an audience, they must resonate. For ideas to resonate, they must be relatable. For ideas to relate, they must draw from the audience’s experiences.
All successful leaders and entrepreneurs have developed powerful observation skills. Often, these individuals are forged by a lifetime of hard experiences. They complement their lack of experience in some aspects with keen observation. A combination of experience and observation gives them insight into what moves people. This knowledge helps them craft a message that stirs people to action.
Simplicity
Simple, or plain, language makes it more likely that a message is understood exactly as intended … and quickly. It cannot be denied that a varied vocabulary provides more options. Ideas or emotions that would otherwise take more than a few simple words to describe can sometimes be indicated by one or two specific terms. This requires confidence, however, in the audience’s familiarity with the term and its usage. Generally, the more obscure the word, the more likely it is to be misunderstood. Avoid this as much as possible.
This lowers unnecessary barriers between you and your audience. A conversational level of language proficiency is usually enough to describe any idea. Whether you are conversing in your own native language or in an unfamiliar language, focus on using plain language to make your ideas understood. Do not waste time wondering whether your language proficiency is impressive enough to woo the audience. Let the simplicity of your words stand in stark contrast to the depth of your ideas.
An Example
Let’s demonstrate this with an example. Describe the idea behind the image below in your own words.
You could describe it as …
“… the ardor of the their dance blazed stark against the gentle waves. The sand at their feet, the fire nearby, and the Sun in the west were content witnesses, seemingly suspended in time.”
You could also describe it as …
“… in their dance, they forgot the world around them. In each other they found more warmth than fire, more light than the Sun, and more comfort than the sound of the ocean.”
Which one do you prefer?
Mutual Understanding
Never underestimate the power of similes, metaphors, and figures of speech. They are often equivalent to pages of text. They indicate a shared understanding of the world with your audience. Observe how your audience views the world. What drives them. What concerns them. What brings them joy. Limiting your vocabulary may be a constraint but constraints necessitate creativity. And creatively expressed ideas are memorable.
Achieve mutual understanding with your audience and wither away all cultural and lingual differences. Let the authenticity of your ideas be like the warm glow of a hearth on a cold winter evening.