Minds Are Limited

According to The Global Language Monitor (GLM), a U.S. company that analyzes and tracks language trends, as of today there are 995,844 words in the English language. They estimate the average college graduate's vocabulary to be around 14,000 words -- less than 2% of the total words available.

Now, some would argue that there is no possible way to quantify the total number of English words due to obsolete words, variant spellings, and other issues. For instance, do you count "dog" twice -- once as a noun and once as a verb? And, who really is the "average" college graduate? GLM estimates that an educated adult may actively use only a few thousand words in a week, yet actually understand tens of thousands of words. They suggest Shakespeare's vocabulary was around 24,000 words. They further suggest that he invented more than 1,700 of those words. (Interestingly enough, GLM calculates that George W. Bush has invented at least 25 words.)

So, let's assume there are close to a million words in the English language and that the average college graduate uses approximately 14,000 words in his or her vocabulary. Let's also assume that within 24 hours the average person forgets 80% of what he/she thought he/she learned. What does that mean for communicators?

Minds are limited. Minds hate to be confused. Minds will do anything to simplify information. Make messages easy for your audience to understand. You should be able to write your key overall messages on the back of a business card -- whether it's the unique value of a product or the vision of your company. If you can't explain it in two to three clear sentences...don't expect your customers to remember it. Clarity leads to connections.