Simple Substitutions Make More Memorable Messages

Want your message to be memorable?  Avoid redundancy, wordiness, complex language, and generalities.  Typically (depending on your audience) simple language is best.  Here are some substitutions to get you started:

Redundancy

DON’T SAY	SAY
Advance plan	Plan
Actual experience	Experience
Two cubic feet in volume	Two cubic feet
Cylindrical in shape	Cylindrical
Uniformly homogeneous	Homogeneous

Wordiness

DON’T SAY	SAY
During the course of	During
In the form of	As
In many cases	Often
In the event of	If
Exhibits the ability to	Can

Complexity

DON’T SAY	SAY
Terminate	End
Utilize	Use
Incombustible	Fireproof
Substantiate	Prove
Optimum	Best

Generalities

DON’T SAY	SAY
A tall tree	A 40-foot oak tree
Plant	Medical-device manufacturing facility
Unfavorable weather	Heavy rain
High performance	95% efficiency

Adapted from Chemical Engineer “You and Your Job” (McGraw-Hill, Inc)