Amidst All The Same: The Problem of Vague Writing in Business

‍Vagueness has found a comfy home in much of today's business writing. Vague writing speaks of everything and nothing, leaving readers overburdened and unmoved.

Why professional business writing has become a willing host to vagueness isn't obvious. It's not a market phenomenon; readers will never be impressed by language they can't relate to. Lofty pitches and product descriptions that defy comprehension leave poor impressions, not great ones.

This sounds obvious, but then why is it so often ignored? Partly because the hardest part about good communication is expressing big ideas simply, distilling the point, being conversational, and being honest. The goal is to say a lot with little, but this is hard, and more often we get very little from too much when it comes to writing.

Aside from the difficulty of concise writing, another contributor to the problem of vague writing is the sense that simply being a provider of goods or services is not enough. For some businesses, the effort to present themselves as "more than" becomes a distraction from their real value to consumers. Trying to be "more than" shows up in writing in two ways:

1. (a) Dense, jargon-filled language in an attempt to sound impressive.
2. (b) Big statements aligned to trendy narratives unrelated to the product or service.

In our view, neither of these is worth pursuing.

The first will result in a lack of reader comprehension. Confronted with stilted, jargon-heavy language, will readers understand the point? Does the author? Unlikely. The merits of a good thing don't rest in how it's described, but they can easily become lost in it. In this scenario, the reader is, at best, unaffected; at worst, they're put off.

The second is more complicated because it stems from pressure to conform, which could be perceived as a market driver. Ultimately, we believe this is a short-term strategy with little benefit. By adopting narratives unrelated to their activity, these businesses only become "not wrong" amidst so many others. Overblown statements can also be harmful. A study by the Harvard Business Review found that people are aware of when a company does not meet its stated goals, which hurts customer sentiment and satisfaction, triggering "perceptions of corporate hypocrisy, which affects the customers’ experience with the product itself."

The antidote is to pursue authenticity. Organizations of all kinds should avoid being vague and forced, and focus on being concrete and natural when describing the value they bring.

The way an organization writes positions it in the minds of its readers. It's one area where decisions about how an organization wants to show up play out—and can either reinforce a strong, consistent message connected to purpose and product or waver unconvincingly between jargon and righteousness.

At PS, we prefer the former and believe most people do too.