We're jumping on the slow bandwagon....
We're jumping on a bandwagon. First there was slow food, then slow travel and now we've 'invented' slow words. Good, honest, simple words that don't hide in fancy phrases and many-a-syllable.
Slow words work just as well if you're writing a recipe (when you turn the pie out of the tin it resembles a cottage with subsidence. Fergus Henderson) as they do if you're writing a poem (There came a day that caught the summer/Wrung his neck/Plucked it/And ate it. Ted Hughes).
Just before Christmas, Transport for London launched a campaign to remind people not to use unlicensed minicabs, with the words: ‘If your minicab's not booked, it's just a stranger's car.’
Every single one of those words is simple. There's no hiding behind clever-clever phrases or tricks. All the power is in the idea. It packs a punch and sticks in your head. Simple is powerful.
Ad man Tony Cox, who penned some classic VW adverts, writes '…inside every fat ad there’s a thinner and better one trying to get out. In short, the less said the better.'
We think his advice still stands. If your writing has any long, complicated words in it, swap them for clear, slow words. And help a better idea get out.
Rob Mitchell is one half of 'We All Need Words'. This year they've named a chain of German shops, a property development company and two charities. They're running our Words for Life class on 19 March 2011.
Obfuscation: the fast lane to confusion.
Posted by: Drew Byrne | January 30, 2011 at 07:20 PM