Last week I was talking with a girl, maybe 12 years old, who dropped a big word during the conversation. It seemed like she might’ve been doing it to see if I knew what it meant. I’ll give her a pass since she’s young, but there’s no excuse for a grown-up like you do do this when you’re presenting!
Big words = big brain?
It can be really tempting to drop big words and specialized jargon into your presentations. It’s easy to think that people will be impressed at your knowledge when you use words that they don’t know. Plus, it’s often a faster way to get your point across to people who understand what your words mean. But for those that don’t, well, they don’t like to feel stupid.
I love typefaces that include full ligature sets and specialized punctuation marks, like interrobangs. It makes kerning so easy!
Did you get all that? Maybe if I continued writing like that you’d start to understand what the words mean. But there’s a better way to make yourself understood.
The Herpetologist
In the office of a campground my family and I went to last weekend, I met a girl who commented on my NASA shirt. After a little small talk, she told me she wanted to be a herpetologist when she grew up.
“Oh, you mean studying snakes?” I asked.
“Well it’s the study of all reptiles and amphibians,” she replied. “But you’re the first person who ever knew what I was talking about!”
Although I was happy to be held in high regard, I saw this as a teachable moment. I let her know that using big words as a litmus test for whether or not people understand you isn’t the best way to get people interested in what you have to say.
“Try this instead,” I suggested. “You could tell people, ‘I want to be a herpetologist when I grow up. I’m fascinated by reptiles and amphibians!’ That way, you tell people what a herpetologist does without making them feel dumb.”
“Oh,” she replied, looking for all the world like she would follow my advice. Or at least being polite enough not to tell me to buzz off.
Eschew Obfuscation
It’s easy to fall back on using big words and specialized jargon during your presentations. If you’re used to speaking that way then it’s the easiest thing to do.
Think about the purpose of your speeches. Are you presenting to your peers or professors? Great, big word and jargon it up! But if you’re trying to communicate with people outside of your field who don’t share your educational background and experience, then consider subtly defining your big words and jargon in a way that both teaches people and doesn’t waste the time of those in the know.
Here’s how I apply that theory to my earlier quote:
Before
I love typefaces that include full ligature sets and specialized punctuation marks, like interrobangs. It makes kerning so easy!
After
I love it when typefaces have special characters. It’s so easy to adjust the spacing between letters, numbers, and punctuation when you have characters like ligatures, which are combinations of two or more letters, and interrobangs, which are question marks and exclamation points made into a single character.
Does it take longer to explain the meanings of your big words and jargon? Yes, yes it does. Does explaining big words and jargon make the people you’re speaking to feel included and teach them something they might not have previously known? Absolutely! And that’s why it’s important. You don’t have to be a herpetologist to figure that out.