If you want a gut-wrenching reaction from your readers, replace words with many syllables. Instead, use single-syllable words. And change long nouns and adjectives into verbs.
Use short, pithy words that have peppered English for centuries rather than words derived from French or Latin to arouse the greatest response. Words with many syllables tend to be intellectual words, not emotional words. For emotion, choose blunt words. But be careful to check for tone and meaning. Old words can have many meanings and many connotations.
Here are some examples. Replace each of the boldfaced words with one of the suggestions. Then ask yourself: Does the meaning change? Does the emotion?
1. As the lion approached, I felt trepidation. (fear, quaking, shivers, creeps, chills, a cold sweat) Now take out “felt” and create a new verb from one of the suggestions. (quaked, shivered, sweated) Which grabs you?
2. My insatiable brother ate both drumsticks from the turkey. (greedy, gobbling, piggish, hoggish, swinish) Now replace “ate” with a specific verb. (gobbled, devoured, downed, dispatched, wolfed down) Notice how replacing the verb gives a stronger visual image than replacing the adjective?
3. Before the audition, the dancer’s legs fidgeted. (jerked, itched, twitched)
4. The corpulent passenger could not fit into the airline seat. (fat, obese, fleshy, stout, portly, pudgy, plump, chubby) Now replace “fit” with a more specific verb. (compress, squish, squeeze, crush)
5. The color of the girl’s eyes captivated the photographer. (charmed, ensnared, bewitched)
Long words are not only harder to read, but they lessen the emotional impact. If you want to appeal to emotions, use short Anglo-Saxon words.
English Writing Teacher 