# Excuse me, but doyou HAVE to make your sentences so hard to figure out?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excuse-me-but-doyou-have-to-make-your-sentences-so-hard-to-figure-out/525228>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [January 16, 2010, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excuse-me-but-doyou-have-to-make-your-sentences-so-hard-to-figure-out/525228 "2010-01-16T20:19:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 5

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**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\
**Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excuse-me-but-doyou-have-to-make-your-sentences-so-hard-to-figure-out/525228/81 "2010-01-20T20:46:29Z")

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> [@not\_alice](#):
>
> Oh, why didn’t you say so? 🙂
> 
> An equal responsibility?
> 
> But maybe the reader who can’t understand a given sentence is not really among the target audience even if s/he stumbles on it.
> 
> E.g. I can go grab a biochemistry journal at the library, and it won;t make a lick of sense even though the forms and grammar will all be familiar. Is the author obliged to provide all material to make it “simple” for me?
> 
> I think not.
> 
> If I want to understand the point, I will find a way.

If the reason you don’t understand it is because they assume you understand certain words and concepts, I agree. But, if it would still make little sense even if it were discussing your field or expertise, then it is bad writing.

You may or may not know Star Wars, but would you like having to read everything about it in Yoda speak? The more work I have to put in to understand you, the less likely I’m gonna bother. If that’s the reaction of most your audience, then you might want to check and see if you could improve your writing.

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**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\
**Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excuse-me-but-doyou-have-to-make-your-sentences-so-hard-to-figure-out/525228/82 "2010-01-20T20:55:50Z")

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> [@elucidator](#):
>
> Eschew phraseological obfuscation and non-illuminatory grammatical structuralism!

You used “sesquipedalianism” in a similar construction recently.

Thanks for the new word! 🆒

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**Author:** ![not\_alice](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_alice/32/7283_2.png) [@not\_alice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_alice)\
**Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excuse-me-but-doyou-have-to-make-your-sentences-so-hard-to-figure-out/525228/83 "2010-01-20T20:59:12Z")

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> [@BigT](#):
>
> You may or may not know Star Wars, but would you like having to read everything about it in Yoda speak? The more work I have to put in to understand you, the less likely I’m gonna bother. If that’s the reaction of most your audience, then you might want to check and see if you could improve your writing.

Sure, if you lose most of your audience, _and that is the audience you desire_.

But in this case, we have no evidence that the OP is really known or desired by the author.

Like I said, write for the audience you want to have. If you lose your prior audience because you switch to Yoda-ese, that may be par for the course if you are aiming now for a different audience.

And, truth be told, much if not most writing on the web and elsewhere has little if any audience past the author. People write a lot for themselves, really.

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