antidisestablishmentarianism

People try too hard to sound smart. In Lincoln's Gettyburg address, he used 220 one-syllable words. We don't need to use big words to sound smart. In fact, using multiple syllable words clogs up a sentence and muddles its purpose. Language is meant to help you communicate clearly and concisely, not make you sound intelligent.

I'm no George Orwell, but there are some writing faux pas that everybody should avoid. If you want to sound smart and intelligent, it is more effective to write clear sentences with a clear purpose. Now then, don’t take it too far. Using concise words is different from sounding informal and buddy-buddy. I write informally, which is a rather bad writing style.

This act of setting a pretense isn't limited only to intelligence. People pretend to be cool, people pretend to be creative, people pretend to be talented. This is a public service announcement to stop. Seriously. Writers, teenagers, kids and adults need to come into their own and stop pretending to be other people.

I think that the phrase “Be yourself” is overused and just inaccurate. It bothers me how people have to be told to be themselves as if by default they try to be someone else.

  Somehow this post went from long words to how society is terrible, I apologize.