According to Canadian-American journalist and writer Vauhini Vara, journalists talk about the importance of writing for a mass audience. She says she was taught to write in ways that third-graders can understand. I have heard it said numerous times that it is generally better to avoid using big words in one’s writing.

I grew up reading newspapers. There were no books in the small Ghanaian village where my family lived so the national daily newspaper was the only reading material available to me. The articles were written in English, which is the official language in Ghana. The journalists who wrote them mostly used language that was quite basic. That was because they were non-native English speakers. But I recall being impressed by the writing much of the time. Almost everyone in the village was illiterate, and I had little English vocabulary at the time. In that situation, pretty much anything was mesmerizing.

Reading newspapers became a lifelong habit. The journalists whose works I read today are of a completely different caliber. Mostly, they are native English speakers, and the language they use tends to be a lot more sophisticated than what I experienced growing up.

There are a few American journalists whose articles I always eagerly look forward to reading. George Will is one of them. He writes a twice-weekly column for the Washington Post. Will’s command of the English language is supreme. Before I read any article written by him, I open a Google search window because it is guaranteed that I will come across at least one unfamiliar word to add to my vocabulary.

Gerard Baker, a columnist at the Wall Street Journal, is another favorite journalist of mine. Like Will, Baker’s use of the English language is sublime. Almost always, his articles contain sophisticated words that are new to me. In one of his 2024 columns, he wrote the following: “The withered man the party has just knifed will be hoisted aloft before adoring delegates and media panegyrists and hailed as Mount Rushmore-ready. Then, three nights of tributes to the Pantsuit Pericles.” Those were references to President Biden’s disastrous June 2024 debate performance and his subsequent exit from the presidential race, and the Democratic Party convention at which Vice President Kamala Harris was nominated as candidate.

I am ambivalent about the notion that in writing, it is generally best not to use big words. They are in the dictionary for a reason, and I see nothing wrong with people like Will and Baker, who are adept at forming sentences with them, employing them as they please. Reading well-crafted sentences with classy words always gives me great joy. In my opinion, brilliant writers like Will and Baker should be allowed the freedom to practice their craft.

I have come across a few online commenters who think that Will is showy in the way he writes. One unhappy reader wrote this: “His columns are so obscure that it’s obvious they are assembled using a random word generator.” That sounds to me like someone who is frustrated that they can’t comprehend Will’s articles without having to do all kinds of extra work. I agree that all those starts and stops to look up words can be tedious, but for me it’s always a fun exercise.

Even when Will uses plain words in his writing, he still manages to construct sentences that are breathtaking. Referring to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and what he must have known about President Trump’s widely panned 28-point Ukraine Peace Plan before it was announced, Will wrote this: “Rubio, whose well-known versatility of convictions is perhaps not infinite, told some of his alarmed former Senate colleagues that the plan was just an opening gambit from Russia.”

Another Will column contained the following lines: “The rhetorical ferocity from each party’s most incandescent faction is disguising what has become a politics of emulation” and the fact that “the parties’ craziness quotients are comparable.” Will was commenting on the extreme nature of the far left and far right wings of both political parties in America today. Mere mortals like me can only dream about writing sentences that classy.

Apart from their elegance, I like to read the writings of Will and Baker because of their acerbic nature. I love sarcasm because I think it is the best antidote to the many hypocrisies and absurdities we see and hear all around us nowadays. For anyone who enjoys mockery, I highly recommend Will’s Boxing Day (2025) column. It is a gem of an article.

Peggy Noonan, who writes “Declarations,” a weekly column in the Wall Street Journal, is another journalist whose writing I greatly admire. Unlike Will and Baker, Noonan largely avoids big words. She writes in a manner that is almost conversational, and in a rhythm that I often find melodic. It is not surprising at all that she was a speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan.

The trouble I have now is that when I read newspapers, I can’t remember the meanings of new words as easily as I used to in my youth. A part of me thinks it is to some extent due to memory deterioration with age. But I don’t believe that is the real reason. The poor retention, I am convinced, is a result of process differences.

When I was growing up, there were no search engines. I had to look up the meanings of unfamiliar words in a dictionary. I wrote everything down in notebooks and meticulously built up a fair bit of vocabulary that way. More importantly, I was constantly practicing the spellings of the words and trying to form sentences with them. Those drills were highly instrumental in boosting my retention of all that information I was recording.

I almost never record and practice vocabulary in that fashion anymore. These days, I just look up a new word online and continue whatever I am reading. I feel like I understand a word’s meaning in that moment, but a few days or weeks later, I’ll I see the same word elsewhere and realize that my initial grasp on it was fleeting.

There is much talk nowadays about short attention spans. I suspect the vast majority of us suffer from the affliction. It is a shame that I am now exposed to such elegant writing by the likes of George Will, Gerard Baker, Peggy Noonan and Maureen Dowd (New York Times columnist) and I’m unable to benefit as much from their artistry as I really should.

My writing would definitely be a lot better than it is now if growing up, I had read the works of these brilliant journalists.