Are We Dumbing Down Our Writing?

by Rick Taubold

From time to time I hear this comment that today's writers and writing has gotten away from the gorgeous prose of decades--and centuries--past.

My wife is reading a set of novels by Howard Fast from the 1980s and she's periodically asking me what certain words mean far more often than usual. She's enjoying the novels very much and has expressed the opinion that today's writing is less complex than writing used to be.

Have today's authors dumbed down their writing to make it more comprehensible, hence more salable.

Are today's authors simply less competent in their vocabulary than their predecessors?

Writing styles change over the years. Contemporary writing tends to reflect the contemporary society, regardless of the period the writing depicts. If Charles Dickens or Mark Twain were writing today, would they be writing in the same style as they did in their times?

Likewise, our vocabulary has shifted. Words common in past decades are less used today. Does this mean readers are less literate? In our current society, new words arise daily and supplant older ones. In addition, our vocabulary has undergone some drastic shifts as new technical terms arise.

Should we lament once-common words falling out of use or being replaced? When someone is totally amazed by something, we'll say he was astounded or dumfounded. But when was the last time you heard the word "flummoxed" used? Or how about "expurgated?" We can say that, "Most children read an expurgated or bowdlerized version of Grimms' Fairy Tales." We're more like to say, however, that they read a censored or sanitized (or even "politically correct") version.

I love seeing those big, twenty-five cent words tossed and sprinkled into prose. The problem is that doing so in a contemporary novel with contemporary characters will make it sound out of place. We might love Shakespeare's colorful vocabulary, but forcing modern characters to use it is a questionable act unless the story requires it.

English is a growing--not a shrinking--language. Vocabulary is shifting, not always being lost. Slang is on the rise. Old words are being given new meanings. I love "ghetto" as an adjective. "It's ghetto" means something is run-down, broken-down, beat-up, decrepit, derelict. Would a teen today use any of these words? Well, it would depend on his or her background. As a writer, I have to consider how my CHARACTERS would say it, not how I might want to say it.

I don't think we've dumbed down our writing any more than I believe modern authors are necessarily less competent in their vocabulary than their predecessors were. Have I read authors whom I considered less competent in their vocabulary skills? Have I read some authors who seem to have simplified their vocabulary on purpose? Yes, to both. Do I think it's a pervasive problem in modern writing? Not at all.