First kiss: English as a strength in job search
Please read the following text:
There is currently a lively, ongoing controversy among many sociologists and other professionals who study human nature: theories are being spun and arguments are being conducted among them about what it means that so many young people - and older people, for that matter - who live in our society today are so very interested in stories about zombies.
Is it clear to you? Is it somehow confusing or annoying? Does it sound natural?
This is an example that I found on a website named readable.com (https://readable.com/blog/examples-of-wordy-sentences-and-how-to-correct-wordiness/) that shows the importance of direct communication.
There is currently a lively, ongoing controversy among many sociologists and other professionals who study human nature: theories are being spun and arguments are being conducted among them about what it means that so many young people—and older people, for that matter—who live in our society today are so very interested in stories about zombies.
If your mother tongue is Italian or another Latin origin language this sentence will not puzzle you. And yet, based on its proprietary metrics Readeble.com concludes that this text is only easily readable by 25% of the general public because it is too long, wordy and overall ineffective.
A much better rewording would be:
A lively societal debate rages among the human sciences. The contentious issue is: why are so many people fascinated by zombie fiction?
Nell’ambito delle scienze umane si è scatenato un animato dibattito. La questione controversa è la seguente: perché così tante persone sono affascinate della fiction sugli zombie?
According to Readable.com this simplified version can be easily understood by 80% of readers, and I am sure that you also think that it is much more effective.
Admittedly, some details have been pruned off but an oral speech is directed to the listener’s short-term memory, which is limited by its very nature…this is why Less is More*.
Moreover, we want to connect to the listener at an emotional level, and some words and sentence structures are definitely more engaging.
It is not a question of English, but of languages and cultures different from ours
These principles apply to any language, but in English they become unescapable for cultural reasons: the Anglo-Saxon approach is far more pragmatic than the Italian or Spanish ones, as can easily be observed when comparing the two. The differences are significant: if you translated an Italian or Spanish rhetorical speech into English literally the resulting text would be unacceptable to most native speakers.
Which solution? The Communication Coach
The support of a Communication Coach in English is the best solution to master the language codes originated in the UK and USA and currently used worldwide.
This concept is summarised in the title of this post. First Kiss is a pun that should not be taken literally (certainly not during social distancing, when kisses are strictly prohibited). It’s my first post on the concept summed up in the acronym KISS**, i.e. KEEP IT SHORT AND SIMPLE. A safe compass to effective communication, especially in English.
One more kiss to come soon…
* No doubt that this simplified version has removed some information that in a more technical text might have been essential. In this type of message, though, nothing really important has been omitted and the ensuing communication is much more powerful.
** “KISS” also stands for Keep it Simple, Stupid…which does not apply here given the high level of our readers.
