Impress with your thinking, not your language
Big words and complex sentence structure can be used to generate the impression of being ‘educated’. Some writers deliberately make text difficult to understand to create an air of mystique and to emphasis the distance between their intelligence and that of the reader. This pretence gets in the way of communication.

“The source of bad writing is the desire to be more than a person of sense – to be thought a genius. If people would only say what they have to say in plain terms, how much more eloquent they would be.” Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Often obscure, foggy writing is a consequence of obscure, foggy thinking. The subject is not as well understood as the writer pretends, so they bombard us with words that hide meaning. Readers need to work hard to unpack the ideas. When you write in plain language your thinking is held up clearly for all to see.

It’s important to resist the temptation to impress with your language. Using plain expressions will mean more readers will understand, and readers who can handle complex language will not be disadvantaged in any way. 

Sure there are times when specialist language and jargon is appropriate, but most of the time using speech patterns and the plain words of every day conversation is the most effective way to get your message across.

Action
1. Make a list of plain alternatives to difficult words. Here’s a few to get you started.

                 abandon      leave

                adequate      enough

               aggregate      total

                  allocate      give, divide

                beneficial      helpful

            demonstrate      show

                encounter      meet

              enumerate      count

                 expedite      speed up

                 fabricate      make

                 illustrate      show

             remittance      payment

2.Ask an intelligent lay person to read your text before you publish. Ask them what it means. Have they understood the message as you intended?