It's OK to use Big Words - where appropriate - By: Rodney J Smith

The other day I was reviewing a formal business document with a group of colleagues when someone objected to use of the word 'analagous', not because it was used incorrectly, but because she didn't understand it and therefore didn't think it should be allowed to remain in the document. What's worse is that the rest of this group of professionals - all fairly senior and well-respected in the organisation - agreed with her!

I would argue however that use of the word was entirely appropriate: it concisely conveyed the intended meaning and was suitable for the context (a formal document) and intended audience (educated business professionals). Perhaps if the intended audience was school children the language would have to be adapted accordingly. I say 'perhaps' because it seems to me that our modern education system is seriously lacking in teaching the fundamentals of reading and writing. Every document that passes my desk these days is rife with basic spelling, grammar and punctuation mistakes which should have been addressed in primary school. Some of these have been produced by highly paid external consultancies, and unfortunately my immediate impression on reading one is: if they can't even spell (or use a spell checker) properly, how can I trust that they know what they're talking about?

I'm not saying that we should deliberately use big words to obfuscate meaning, but this dumbing down is, in my opinion, a sign of how far the UK has fallen in the world pecking order. I can not imagine a similar (one might even say analagous) group of Chinese or Indians responding in the same way as my colleagues; rather they would be reaching for the dictionary and making a mental note to try harder in future.

And this is why in the not too far distant future we'll all be having to learn Chinese: because they, with their phenomenal work ethic will have so far outstripped the traditionally industrialised countries in education and innovation that having to deal with big words in English will be the least of our children's worries.

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