No more fancy-pants prose, please

“The writer who indulges in fancy-pants prose sometimes has too large an ego, and sometimes one that’s too small,” says Francis Flaherty, author of The Elements of Story.

Fancy-pants prose—in other words, highfalutin, multisyllabic words—rarely serve writers well. Instead, as Flaherty suggests, they’re evidence that the author is trying to impress his or her audience.

In the investment and wealth management world, this shows up in the use of words such as “mitigate” when “reduce” or “cut” would serve the purpose. 

Can you think of fancy-pants words you’d like to eliminate from our industry’s publications? Please leave a comment.