Senseless Verbiage: A Response

Recently I have been confronted by this individual's stark assertion regarding the use of obscure words, which she hypocritically insinuates are irrelevant and extraneous. What I fail to see is any real clarity, depth, or substance to her accusation.

Ironically enough it seems as though she's made this statement without giving adequate thought to the words she's wasted.

If words like "aptitude" and "indiscriminate" are considered commonplace, what then is her standard? I have, in the past, had companions who were incapable of defining words such as these. Again I ask, this time more directly, what is the standard to which you so fervently hold that determines what writers are overtly in-understandable, and what writers are as candid as yourself?

I don't wish to appear hypocritical or intentionally malignorant (a word which has just now taken the first breath of new life), so please allow me to explain my stance.

I believe strongly in many of the principles expressed in your post. While I won't go into detail here, suffice it to say that I have explored this path before, and found the journey most satisfying.

Yes, writing is a compulsion.

Yes, some are born to writing, and some have writing thrust upon them.

No, I will never refrain from using a word that I feel is more accurate because someone, or a great many someones, may require additional education to understand that which I am attempting to express.

It is preposterous to assume that most of those individuals who read my blog are incapable of learning, but let us, for a moment, do just that.

Suppose I indulged in a style of writing which immediately and overtly expressed precisely what I meant it to, in a way that required the fewest words, and therefore the smallest margin of time to digest. What if I was concise? Meaning is then lost.

But if I were to equivocate and expound and explain until I was certain that everything I had attempted to say had been said in a way that most closely mirrored my internal monologue, would I then, according to you, be writing extraneously?

Please understand that I am a firm believer in writing in a way that communicates most efficiently; however, you must also understand that I find accuracy preferable to conciseness. These two aspects of writing, of which a careful writer must be cognizant, are two extremes between which all writing must balance. As I shared with a fellow blogger a few days ago, the most important part of blogging is the ability to communicate. Who you communicate to, and in what way, are highly relevant to this balance.

With that said, has it occurred to you that perhaps some of us read to expand not only our minds and philosophical horizons, but our vocabulary and ability to comprehend? I do identify with the reader as well as the writer, for I have done a fair amount of both, and I find that your careless presumption strikes a most painful nerve. I do not wish to attack your character, but instead ask only that you consider all the ramifications of a statement before you make it.

In this way you may consider yourself, at the very least, convinced of your own correctness.