Writing coach Paula LaRocque in her The Book on Writing, lists second in her “dozen guidelines to good writing” tips aimed at clearing out, cleaning up and clarifying. In short: “Avoid Pretensions, Gobbledygook, and Euphemisms.”

One mistake writers make, says LaRocque, is to assume educated readers prefer bafflegab to clarity. Another is to assume that “ma and pa on the farm won’t understand anything very ‘intelligent.’”

“ … most people prefer to read at or below the 10th-grade reading level,” LaRocque says. “And that’s no hardship; any decent writer or speaker can handle the most complex material at that level without ‘dumbing it down.’”

A clear message builds credibility. Want to damage your credibility? “ … veil the message in showy blather,” says LaRocque.

I don’t know if you’ve been face to face with one of those staid and stereotyped editors who chewed on the short end of a cigar, pounded a cluttered desk and bellowed, “Call a whore a whore!” But they did exist and they live on, at least in the hearts and minds of those of us who learned from them.

I think of my old desk-pounding editor as LaRocque warns against forsaking clarity.

“Sometimes we slip into gobbledygook when we’re trying to soften the message,” she says. “Trying to make the message more palatable by manipulating the language sooner or later leads to euphemism, which at best amuses and at worst alienates.”

Her example: “’That project lost money’ becomes ‘that project had an adverse impact on anticipated revenue.’

Sounds like a lady of the evening/practitioner of the world’s oldest profession to me.

Call a whore a whore.

LaRocque has granted permission to share passages of her work with CNHI editors through our www.cnhinews.com Web site. Next: Short and simple words work.