K)Let's take Doug as an example. Most people on this list believe Doug is a stellar example of clear, relatively jargon-free writing. In my experience, most people I've worked with would find Doug's work difficult--whether they're the CIO of a Fortune 50, a degreed professional who reads Harper's, or a butcher.
J) I don't think Doug's a good example. His writing is clear, but it's also sarcastic, witty, and relies on an assumed "common" background with his readers that some potential readers would not have. There's also a lot of irony that might prove confusing to the many readers.
K) I think most people miss the mark when they worry that "we" talk past our audience. What puts our audience off is our facility with language in general. People are intimidated simply by the way we use words. It's not about twenty-five cent words. It's the way we link simple words together, the way we make them work for us, the ease with which most of us can convey our thoughts. It's even about the tendency we have to eschew the goody-goody, I'm-OK, you're-OK, it's just my opinion approach to dialogue that characterizes 99% of social interactions about anything other than the weather.
J) I think this is very, very true. And it brings up the very important point that in opening up lines of communication, expressing yourself clearly is only half the job. The other half is listening. Through the quality of this listening, you can help the person trying to communicate by conveying to him/her that they are important even if their words aren't polished, "important" words. For an audience not to be put off by our facility with words, we must establish trust by demonstrating that they matter and that their concerns matter. I don't conceive of communication as a speech one makes, that is either understood or misunderstood; I conceive of it as a dialog that can bind and sharpen/refine the thinking and feeling of any two (or more) people.
K)As a person who used to be among the great unwashed y'all are trying to reach, I don't think you do anyone a favor by patronizing them.
J) It would never occur to me to think that speaking/writing clearly and meaningfully is a form of patronage. I think the effort/work to be clear is very humbling...it is an acid test of what you really do understand and how well you understand it. There is this odd idea that the simple is easy; it isn't in any art form I know of. There is also the idea that making something simple is reducing it to the lowest common denominator; I don't think this is so at all. (I'd say the development of graphical GUIs is a good counter-example.)
K. ONe of the most amazing things I've ever seen happen, what keeps me optimistic through all of this, was the experience I had on one of the projects mentioned above. To make a long story short, we put together a citizens forum on a plant closing in a rustbelt community that had been going through plant closings for twenty years--decades, actually. Our citizens were from all walks of life.
J. It sounds great.
K. The eloquence of Andrea's plea for a forum within which people might engage in public dialogue stands in sharp contrast to the claims of a cadre of experts who ritually rebuke the working-class for their apathy. <...>
J. ...very much so...