Monday, January 28, 2002

KISS, Part One

Gerry McGovern makes some good points in his current article: The need for simple English on the Web.

"Writing is about communicating. If your reader requires a dictionary of slang in order to wade through your content, chances are you wont have too many readers." Hear hear!

And for the most part, I agree with him. Until I get to this paragraph:

"Unlimited choice scares people. (Practically nobody goes beyond the second page of search results.) Complex language confuses them. Long convoluted documents turn them off."

Which is pretty patronizing stuff. Unlimited choice does not scare people, for cryin' out loud - people have limited TIME and limited PATIENCE - so why bother going beyond the first page of search results if one finds what's needed there? Isn't that the point of searching vs. surfing? Complex language is a waste of TIME - so why bother? Convoluted documents waste TIME and PATIENCE, so why bother with them? There are too many choices available for any web user to put up with bullshit of any ilk. If the crap detector goes off, a reader immediately moves on unless the info is absolutely essential (such as bank-speak, like that found on Chase Online).

One thing web writers ARE doing well is contributing to the destruction of the English language. But I'll save that for my next rant.
posted by lee on 01/28/02 at 03:50 PM

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