Sigh.

I'm an editor by trade. Part of my job is teaching Canadian Forces members and federal civil servants to write plain English. Every group includes somebody who says, "Why do I have to bother with [punctuation, capitalization, etc.--skill he or she lacks] when people understand me?" I always reply, "How do you know they understand you? Have you asked them all?" And, sure enough, I soon find that many are accustomed to handling barrages of telephone calls and e-mails demanding clarification of their written instructions, requests and explanations. I do my level best to teach them to get to the point, and explain that point in simple sentences following the conventions of written English, so their work can be done with the release of the original message.

Many people believe that writing in a fancy or complex way makes them seem more interesting or appealing. I think that this is a delusion, and that people who use odd or contrived writing styles -- including those writing e-mails and Internet posts -- do so for one of two reasons: they don't know enough words, or they are not taking the trouble to use the words they know.

In my admittedly arrogant opinion.

Charmion