A bit of a newbie to blogging. Sometimes a new face can see things differently. Certainly new to writing KOS articles and commenting in feeds. So take this as what it is, just one person’s observations. Certainly no expert, and I mean it.
First I have been reading Daily KOS for years now. At least since 2017. I find Markos to be the best at posting on KOS. Easy to read and understand. (Not brown nosing or kissing up). He just is. I usually don’t walk away wondering what the heck he’s talking about. He has military experience, but transcends military jargon so we can understand. He does a lot of “see this link” so we can read it and understand without xplaining (mansplaining without the sexist meaning, it’s an equal opportunity world). He seems to avoid wasting our time wondering what he’s writing. He assumes both, that we may understand it all or could just look it up to learn. He also uses plain speak. Boil it down to simpler words so most can easily understand. He may not of thought this all out, but it’s a great communication style in this overwhelming digital world.
I like to share personal background, without oversharing, in the hopes that other can more easily relate. I went thru grad school, not a PHD, GRE’s in the 1300s, not shabby. 800 math and clearly not so good on the verbal. Lived almost 70 years, so lots of life experiences. I’m in the privileged few. Not economically, but white male. So I recognize I have not experiences what other have.
I worked in mental health in rural areas so I had to become great at plain speak. When my profession used clinical jargon we referred to it a psychobabble. Client’s could not understand what we were saying. So it was a reminder to simplify the language. So I self regulate, I don’t assume others will understand my jargon and I also assume they are of the same skills/intelligence. So I use “plain spoken language”. I would encourage others to do so. More people will understand what you are trying to communicate. (Especially when you are communicating with other outside of your profession). That is why anyone posts here. I was temped to use the words “dummy down”, oh so biased and liberal elitist. Some jargon works against communication.
Not all of us are wordsmiths or have recent experience reading scholarly articles and academic papers. Us old folk’s “mailboxes get full”. A term I now find as dated now that the cloud can store infinity of data. Us old folk used to clean out our email as it was full. A common error message back in the day. So we may appear a bit dull. Efficiency has it’s costs. How old are you when what was computer jargon is now so dated you have to explain it to your children and grandchildren? Heck the iPhone capacity(storage and processing) took up a 20’x20’ room of equipment back in the day. Oh, the stacks of punch cards, too. Data entry = sit at a punch card typewriter or whatever it was called. Rambling on a bit am I.
KISS or the more appropriate KISS. Keep it short and simple. More people will read the post and understand the communication, especially in the feed back sections(also new to me). If you feel the need to further explain you thoughts, write an article. More people will see it. Hence more effective. It’s the beauty of KOS. And it’s fun to find fellow travelers here.
Blogging is only one of our six senses. Missing the other five that we use with in person interactions. So lots of opportunity for misunderstanding.
Plain Spoken works for the masses.
Don’t try and looks beyond the words. Sometimes it is what it is. Easily leads to dead end arguments.
Assume no one here is smarter or not smarter than you, or that they are assuming this about you. I’s just wordsmith and who may be best at this. They may then demonstrate that yes, they are the liberal elite, so then move on. Yes, people do experience this phenomenon. Why else would anyone spend so much energy on “woke” and “owning the libs”.
And no, in writing this article I’m not being defensive, simplistic naive,etc. It’s adorable. It does indicate I might have made a few uncomfortable. That is my goal. Make all of us see each other differently and get over our biases.
I realize most here probably took a basic communication course somewhere in your life experiences, so this is a refresher as such. Add anything else you have though of to the feed. I am not the expert.
My two cents. Have a kind and productive day(a nod to Stuart Smalley, sort of)