What kind of language should we use and why?

The great communicators have always used language that was easily understandable and short and to the point.   Keep in mind that it is just as true as it has ever been in today's information driven society.

Great writers, poets, screenwriters as well as those who communicate for a living such as politicians, media persons and opinion leaders all must use language that people can understand but be able to assimilate and retain in their minds and use as reference points to form their decisions.

Take for instance the work of Winston Churchill or writers of widely read popular fiction, you'll find that the language used in the text is similar in it's style.   It all tends to use short words and be understandable.   When we look at these examples you must come to the conclusion that difficult and hard to understand words and phrases are sometimes used to impress rather than inform.   Those who write articles that never get to the point and express circular logic are written to sometimes just fill space or to prove that the writer is intelligent.   It is a fact that newspaper writers often must "write a subject to death" just to fill the space requirements and could probable get the job done in half the space.

We should not short change our audience by not being colorful and descriptive or complete our thoughts.   The language used must be complete and get your idea across.   One of the issues faced by communicators throughout the ages is that the challenge of getting and keeping the audiences attention can sometime lead to the risk of losing their ability to understand what is being said or misconstruing the meaning of your message.   Great speakers and writers do not take that chance;   they make sure that to obtain impact the message does not get lost.   Winston Churchill's great challenge "Blood Toil Sweat and Tears" motivated a nation to go to war and suffer deprivation with great bravery. Kennedy's "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country" were plain language challenges that moved whole groups of society to positive action. This kind of plain language communication gets results.