What would Hemingway say about the words you’ve chosen to include in your speech?
I love words, what they can do, how they sound and where they come from. As former Reagan speechwriter, John Shosky says:
Words are dangerous. And I earn my living from words. And I got an A for A Level English long enough ago that it meant something.
But when I came across a competitor’s website recently I began to doubt myself. I found myself having to reread whole sentences several times to work out what they were on about.
And then I applied what I call the Hemingway test.
The story goes that one of his competitors was mocking him saying that his novels had never sent anyone scurrying for a dictionary.
His brilliant response? “You don’t need big words for big ideas”.
And if you look back at all the great speeches, they all use words that people understand. Not that hard surely?
Update: I came across this sweet nugget from an old David Ogilvy book recently…
“When copywriters argue with me about some esoteric word they want to use, I say to them, ‘Get on a bus. Go to Iowa. Stay on a farm for a week and talk to the farmer. Come back to New York by train and talk to your fellow passengers in the day-coach. If you still want to use the word, go ahead.”
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