Why You Should Write Like You’re Speaking To A Child

I spent my twenties catching up on what I failed to take in at school. English was not a fun topic for me, and over my working career, I’ve constantly spent time improving how I write and brushing up on my vocabulary (I’m still learning).

My mates have taught me some words over the years, which I felt slightly embarrassed about. Etiquette was a word I only learnt about 10 years ago (there’s a story there to do with some bad golf, but I’ll save that for another day).

I’ve always tried writing so that I come across as intelligent and technical, but actually, over the past few years, I’ve adapted my approach, to actually dumb everything down and make it come across less clever. 

Basically, how you’d talk to children so they can understand, and that’s the key.

But Why? Adults Are Not Children?

People who are just like me won’t always understand certain words or phrases, and if there’s a better way of explaining something, it will be understood and adopted by more people.

Aiming to write and explain something as you would for a 5-year-old is the key.

Some clever people might not agree, but Albert Einstein (a very clever person) is quoted as saying “If you can’t explain it simply, then you don’t understand it well enough” 

Stop using long and confusing words, when there’s an alternative that will get the message across more easily.

Take the image above. This was a question on a fitness quiz and look at the progress, step 10/18. I am over halfway, and yet, for those who’d get confused here, they’d just shut the page.

I’m not afraid to admit this. I didn’t know what the word Sedentary meant.

I Googled the word to find out that it basically means do you sit down all day?

If that’s what it meant, then why not write do you spend much of the day sitting down?

If I asked my 5-year-old, he’d have stared back blankly at me. The same way I did when I was completing the form.

What’s To Swipe & Deploy?

Review your website and look at the language you use to explain your products or services. Could it be any clearer and easier to understand for a broader audience? Do you use longer, potentially confusing words, or even worse, internal industry lingo that only people in your industry would understand?

Considering the way you write is more powerful that an image on a page. A picture might be worth a thousand words, but it’s the words that encourage the conversion.

With the freedom of movement, people from different countries travel to live and work in the UK. English is often their second language. They will have a much easier time understanding things as their heads convert your words into their native tongue if you use clear and simple language.

If you can, make your copy simple and clear.

There are of course some cases where you need to write for your audience (technical people will prefer technical documents) but you can still appear intelligent while altering sentences so they are accessible to more people.

That’s a wrap for Swipe & Deploy #16. Join me next week when I’ll share another insight or piece of inspiration from around the web. 

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