Level of Vocabulary

One of the big problems I've seen come from bad English classes is that they reinforce bad language. All of the books and essays we read are written in an old and highfalutin style. People think they need to use high-level vocabulary to prove that they're educated. Ironically, all it shows is that they're thoughtless tools.

Of course, all the people who rebel against the English class have just as big a problem: they think the level of their vocabulary doesn't matter. Sadly, it's just not true. The fewer words you know, the more difficult it is to express yourself. And if you can't express yourself with a certain eloquence (like not using "thing" and "stuff" to describe every object), you will be looked at as significantly less intelligent than others.

There is a tricky balance between high-level and low-level language. The way that English works, there is potentially a single word that exists or can be made to describe absolutely any object, action, or concept. However, that doesn't mean you should always use them. I believe that you should never use words that are more complicated than you need. If you're talking about a cartoon cow, don't call it an anthropomorphized bovine. But, if the spray of perfume was evanescent, don't feel the need to dumb it down. If a reader doesn't know a word, they can look it up, or figure it out from sound and context.

Heck, some people might not even know what jargon is. For those people, all I can say is that dictionary.reference.com is your friend, because you better not count on me to tell you that it is the vocabulary of a specific field (except for this one time). But that's just me. I have a vocabulary better than a 5th grade education and I will use it when the time is right. Sometimes a word is just perfect and I will not remove it to make sure every single person doesn't need to look it up.

Ultimately, write the way that is natural to you. If you are using big words to sound smart, you will look stupid. If you use simple words to be very understandable, you will sound stupid. If you write the way you talk, regardless of high or low level, you will sound like a real human being, which is what you should really want.