Business people are still lousy KISSers, Daily Telegraph

New research reveals that an inability or reluctance to use plain English – or to keep it short and simple (KISS) – is still the single greatest barrier to good business writing.

The findings by Emphasis, who have been training business people how to write for over eight years, show that a staggering 99 per cent of the pre-training documents they receive from clients contain unnecessary business-jargon or overly-long and complicated words and phrases. And for 63 per cent of people, this failure to KISS represents one of the three biggest challenges to improving their business writing.*

The research findings coincide with the announcement of the Plain English Campaign’s Annual Awards on 12 December, where organisations and individuals are recognised for having ‘genuinely made an effort to present themselves using clear and concise English’.

‘The research only confirms what we already knew from working with a broad range of blue chip companies and public sector organisations,’ says Emphasis chief executive, Robert Ashton. ‘Despite the odd refreshing example of an individual or organisation really embracing the KISS principle, using plain English remains the exception rather than the rule.’

So why can’t business people KISS? A major issue is the popular misconception that long words and elaborate phrases are somehow a sign of superior intellect or professionalism. But people are inundated with documents to read (an average company with 5000 employees produces a staggering 78 pieces of writing every minute). They are also overworked and short of time so they don’t want to have to translate complicated words and phrases; they just want to get to the point.

‘And this is only half the story,’ says Ashton. ‘The other problem is management speak and buzz words. People are tired of reading about ‘synergy’ and ‘excellence’, while ‘cutting edge’ or ‘innovative’ products and services are ten-a-penny these days. And as for ‘raising the bar’ and ‘low-hanging fruit’, the first thing to spring to mind is some kind of tropical limbo challenge.

‘People sometimes think that using plain English represents some kind of ‘dumbing down’. But short words are not lightweight or less useful. In fact, they’re often more powerful. It’s just a case of having the confidence to use them.’

* (together with poor punctuation and overuse of the passive voice).