By Vic Howard

My early working life was spent in the world of advertising and at that time vocabulary and column width were important factors considered by newspapers. The most important newspaper then was The Times, which had a column width of about two and a half inches (63mm). The most popular and widely read was the Daily Mirror, which had a column width of around one and a quarter inches (32mm). The vocabulary considered necessary to read The Times was around 8,000 and  for the Daily Mirror about 2,000. Today, The Times is no longer quite so exclusive and the Daily Mirror has long been replaced as the widest read by The Sun. The more sensationalist the newspaper, the fatter the headline, the smaller the vocabulary and the narrower the column width. One could also say, the bigger the pictures and the exposure of flesh. Newspaper proprietors, and particularly Rupert Murdoch, knew their readers and how to reach them.

The bible of the advertising world was BRAD (British Rate & Data), which listed the mechanical and essential details for all newspapers and magazines published in Britain. It still does, but these days it’s online and not the enormous, much-coveted book it once was. Media selection was always difficult for advertisers though British snobbery, political and class distinctions made it slightly easier, due to the allegiance of readers to their favourite media. One oddity was that readers of The Times were also often readers of the Mirror. In the early days of computer use, any attempt to select the best advertising media by computer program always came up with the same answer: The Daily Mirror. No doubt AI and Social Media have made the work of the advertising media selector easier. I wonder, though, if the problem once expressed by the then marketing director of a major consumer product has been solved: “Half the money we spend on advertising is wasted. The trouble is, we don’t know which half.”

The generally accepted opinion is that advertising is annoying and unnecessary. Similar to the old adage that there’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing,  good advertising is aimed at specific targets, which is why Direct Mail is so popular. It’s sometimes called Junk Mail, but that’s when it’s misdirected. If you’re a writer you, too, should know your readers and aim to please them. But aim well!

Jonathan Swift of Gulliver’s Travels fame is said to have always read to his servants whatever he wrote. If they didn’t understand it, he would rewrite his text until they did. It allowed him to write satirically about politics and at the same time entertain children with his tales. Obscure words seldom used or understood do nothing to enhance your writing; unless you wish to impress the critics and those who select the winners of literary prizes. If you feel the need to use a foreign phrase, make sure it’s commonly understood, or provide a translation. One popular writer of today who tries to span a wide readership makes the mistake of often using Latin and has even started a chapter with a whole paragraph in Latin without translation. To me, this is as insulting as a put-down by a well-educated person to a manual labourer. Jonathan Swift knew better.

The Nobel Prize committee in Sweden are notorious for neglecting popular writers in favour of the obscure and rarely read authors. To a Swede, the Nobel Prize committee’s greatest crime was never to award Astrid Lindgren (of Pippi Longstocking fame) their highest award. The moral of that must therefore be: ‘Don’t be too successful if you want to be a Nobel Laureate.’ It also, I think, begs the question for the need of having a Nobel Prize for literature. I doubt if JK Rowling holds her breath around Nobel Prize announcement days, but since she has collected so many other accolades she’s probably not much bothered!

Popularity doesn’t mean bad. Just because a writer is popular doesn’t mean they are of less value than the obscure writer who delves into the human psyche. In my opinion, both are necessary and of equal value, but that’s a view not shared by the Nobel committee.

In recent years, the Internet has done wonders for turning the English language into the lingua franca of the world, but it’s also damaged the language a great deal through misuse and the use of abbreviations that anyone over 30 has difficulty in understanding. Language changes and every old grammar pedant realises this. However, anyone keen to change English or invent new words should perhaps first consult a thesaurus and discover how rich it already is. The much-quoted saying that Britain and the US are divided by a common language is gradually losing meaning, due to the Internet. Even national newspapers are employing writers who don’t always know the difference. We like to think the English know best how to use the language, but any group of foreigners using English as their common language are usually thrown into confusion if a native English speaker joins them. Remember that, if you want to reach an international audience! I know to my own personal cost that humour doesn’t travel well. It might explain why Mr Bean is appreciated more abroad than at home; he doesn’t say a word.

Cultural differences affect language, and vice versa. Humour, satire and irony are all part of a native English speaker’s language arsenal. Use them sparingly when writing for a foreign audience. A misjudged joke is nothing to laugh at.

Unlike Icelandic, English may not have 85 words for snow, but it is rich in so many other ways.

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