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We've often accused people who use needlessly complicated language of trying to appear intelligent (at the expense of clarity). But according to a leading American university, they may be failing in such an aim.
The Stanford University study says people who use complicated language when simple words will do tend to be viewed as less intelligent than those who use a more basic and understandable vocabulary. The study found this applied even to 'academic' writing such as postgraduate applications, sociology dissertations and translations of the philosopher Descarte's writings.
"I think it's important to point out that this study is not about problems with using long words, it's about problems with using long words needlessly," lead study author Daniel Oppenheimer explained to the Reuters news agency. "If the best way to say something involves using a complex word, then by all means do so. But if there are several equally valid ways of expressing your ideas, you should go with the simpler one."
He added that most writers were unaware that readers judged intelligence in this way. He gave the example of college applicants adding complicated language to application essays to impress the reviewers. If the school rejects their application as a result of the heavy-handed writing, the student may not realize why. "The student might even think that the reason was because he or she didn't obfuscate enough."
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He gave the example of college applicants adding complicated language to application essays to impress the reviewers.
When I get resumes that use "utilized" instead of "used," I take a point off.
k
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"utilized" instead of "used," A man after my own heart! This is one of my pet peeves, but I feel as if I'm swimming against the current. 
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Carpal Tunnel
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I know how you feel FF. It just irks me. I couldn't tell you exactly why but it does.
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And it's probably way too much trouble to determine whether the applicant really meant utilize: http://www.bartleby.com/61/57/U0155700.htmlWouldn't want to encourage precision in language, would we.
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Wouldn't want to encourage precision in language
Agreed, Faldage.
It is always wise to use "utilize" when we want to improve something, not just use it.
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Utilize is especially appropriate in the narrower sense of making something profitable or of finding new and practical uses for it: Waterpower was once widely utilized to generate electricity. Okay. Since I'm among friends, I'll confess that I don't quite get the distinction here.  I would still have used used in this example... Faldage?
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Pooh-Bah
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Me too, nacyk - whilst adding that it still is widely used for that purpose 
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I don't care about perfect precision on a resume. What I want to see is what they have done - in the simplest language they can muster. But not too simple. I have in the past (and occasionally more recently) been blasted for marking of people who simply list the things they "know." A typical excerpt reads:
Languages: C/C , Java, Perl, Pascal, MATLAB.
I give zero points for this, much to the chagrine of the HR people. The applicant could list a thousand such items and would still get zero credit. This is terse, but it tells me nothing of value. I've seen people - many people - put down XYZ on their resumes without any knowledge whatever of it, because they were working on a project where someone ELSE used XYZ. HR sends me many dozens of resumes (sometimes hundreds), the vast majority of which I put into the "No Chance" stack. (I have three stacks: "no," "yes," and "not quite what I'm looking for, but god this person is really cool." I've only ever hired someone from the 3rd stack once.)
"Well, you should call if you're not sure what that experience means!" they say to me. No, I really shouldn't. I call to ask for details when a candidate writes something that looks meritorious: "Wrote java code to search an MS ACCESS database for bad data." This is a typical thing I would expect a qualified intern to have done. Trivial thing really, but it tells me something important. With a few lines like this, I can get a good feel for what the candidate is capable of doing - much better than just knowing where they are in their program.)
Now this is a particular instance of using big words. I confess that I myself use bigger words than I need to on occasion. I don't do this on the job generally. I do it as a matter of course in my life. I want (or wanted) to expand my vocabulary, but I have a critical defect - a really, really bad memory. I compensate for this in several ways: In math, I don't memorize formulae - I derive them from first principles, or just look them up. For spoken material, like poems, I recite what I like over and over until I have it. For vocabulary, I make an effort to use words I take a liking to. Sometimes a single word, while unusual, replaces an entire phrase which can make conversation flow a bit easier once everyone understand the term. Other times, it makes for a nice variance instead of saying the same word over and over.
"Fungible" is an example. I first heard this word sometime in the past year or two. (IIRC, in the other thread this was the wwftd recently, but I think it must have been on some other word of the day thing - either awad or merriam-webster, perhaps.) If I can work the word into a conversation, I'll gradually get more comfortable with it. At first it always seems a little forced, but if I concentrate and keep at it, it will eventually seem natural to me (as a speaker).
There are other things that are analogous to this. When I read something like history, for example, I often try to work it into a conversation, or talk to my friends about it. My best friend is a greek guy with whom I love to discuss these things. We only see each other for a few days a year, but they're always among the best few days of my life. I talk about what I read and he always knows more than the book's author related, so he's correcting me and giving me pointers to other books.
In normal conversation, this might seem a bit showy, perhaps even pretentious or condescending. But I'm past 40 now and this is the way I am. I don't have any intention of changing.
Anyway, I'm not averse to other people using big words, so long as they don't come across as "Slip" Mahoneys. The one exception is technical stuff (to include resumes). I like it when writers keep the language very simple. When I used to teach programming, I always told my students the first day: "There's plenty enough in this field that is inherently difficult without making things more complicated than they need to be."
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I hear you, FF ~ when I taught resume workshops to techies, I always told them a list was never enough... they had to qualify their experience or it was just yapping in the wind! And as for your three stacks, I once applied for a position as the resident caretaker for a cemetery. I don't remember how I adapted my resume for that one, but I wrote the best cover letter of my life ~ saying that while I may not be the most qualified applicant, I'm certain to be the most enthusiastic. Then I went on to detail my hobby, having my picture taken at the graves of famous people Hi tsuwm!. I did the follow-up call as a lark, and the woman I spoke to said "OH, you're the one! You're on the top of the definite maybe pile!"  I never got an interview, but it's still a feather in my cap that I got into that pile!
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I always told them a list was never enough... they had to qualify their experience or it was just yapping in the wind!
If one had nothing better to do than make phone calls all day, it might be worthwhile to call each candidate and ask what XYZ means on their resume. Or if one only had a handful of resumes to begin with, it might not be so bad. But when you've got dozens of resumes demanding dozens of calls (and everyone you call is going to want a call back yea or nay), this adds up to real time and lots of it.
I don't mind the shorthand stuff, if they've got a few really specific projects synopsized. This is a case where, if one used a single, big word that would encapsulate a lot of meaning, it would be appropriate on the resume. Can't think of a specific example at the moment, but it's easily conceivable.
About 95% of the prospective candidates for the positions I filled ought to have taken your course. I can't believe how bad some of these things are. Not to pick on them, but the Georgia Tech resumes are particularly useless. I've asked our HR people to say something to GT's intern coordinators, but I don't know if anything came of it. I've asked them to quit sending me resumes that just list this crap, because they're wasting my time, but they continue to do it. I think they must just look for keywords.
It's good that you mention the cover letter, too. This seems to be a lost art. I've only gotten a few cover letters over the years, but I'm guessing, without actually doing any statistics, that those who do them stand a better chance with me.
What I do is make my resume as general as I can and then go on to more targeted stuff in the letter. About half of my jobs have been gotten through the old boy network (the "old boy network" is not a good or bad thing in itself), but when I have gotten at job from scratch:
There were several students who graduated same time I did with 4.0s who sent out 200 or more resumes and got maybe 1 interview and 1 offer. In my wife's last job search, she sent out over 100, with 2 interviews and 2 offers. In my first search, I sent out 7 letters/resumes, got 7 interviews and 2 offers (and my gpa was not near that good). Another time, I sent out, I think maybe 3 resumes and got 2 offers. I deduce the resume should contain general information about abilities and experience with supporting information. The cover letter should contain one or two examples of experience that target the particular company with a little more detail than the resume contains, but not much. In both cases, the language should be clear.
I made my wife crazy on my last job search. When she started her search, she typed her resume up in one day and sent it out the next day, made continual revisions, contained many typos, etc. When I did mine, it took me a week for my first draft. I then got comments from several people whose opinions I value on this subject. Many of the opinions were contradictory. I revised and revised and sent my first copy out a month after I started. I had already turned down a job with the new company that won our contract and was about to be unemployed along with my wife. She took 18 months to find a job. I know lots of people much smarter than me who took 6 or more months. I took a little over a week, I think, possibly two. It's got nothing to do with smarts or ability. It has everything to do with planning and execution. The planning part has nothing to do with words, I guess, but the execution (both the letter and the resume) is a neat intellectual exercise:
1. Figure out what you want to do.
2. List all the projects you've ever done.
3. Figure out what aspects in the list 2 supports the list 1.
4. Figure out what you want to say in the resume, write it, revise, revise, revise.
5. Research the prospective employers: BBB, D&B, former employees (often friend of a friend of a friend).
6. Read the job listing very carefully AND read the other jobs listings AND from these figure out what they *really* need beyond what they're listing. (I don't recall details, but I remember in several cases I lacked "required" experience, but had other abilities.)
7. ONLY SEND RESUMES TO PLACES YOU REALLY WANT TO WORK.
8. Write a targetted cover letter that gets right to the point and provide examples of experience that address the list from point 6. Also, you want to convey the impression that you're familiar with the problem space, or at least have some appreciation of it and interest in it.
I suspect it would be a lot harder today, and take a lot longer, but if it came down to it, I'd use the exact same method today that I used back then. This corresponds to how one would like to write programs, if one had enough time - you spend the bulk of the time thinking very carefully and very deeply about the problem and a relatively small amount of time writing the code. You want the final language to be terse, but neat, clear and easy to read and assimilate. No fluff. No personal stuff. No excruciating details, but support what you said you can do. I understand why my wife was anxious, but I honestly don't think a month is too much time to write a resume. Even two or three months seems quite reasonable to me. Heck, for a big career change, or to land one's dream job, I can even see taking much longer in some cases.
k
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the distinction here
Well, Nancy, someone might say they used MS Excel to do profit and loss spreadsheets but that they utilized it to do some other thing that it wasn't designed for but that worked quite well under the circumstances.
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