Day 165: Avoid preaching to your readers.

Words such as should, must, and ought to are preaching words (their official name is modal auxiliaries). These words express an opinion as a general rule or command. They make your statements moral and ethical judgments. Although such words might be appropriate from a pulpit, they are not appropriate in formal writing.

Let’s look at an example. We found the following statement in the conclusion of a document we were asked to edit:

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“To help more children read, this legislative body SHOULD allocate more money to schools.”

In a sense, the writer is saying, “If you don’t allocate more money, you obviously don’t care about children reading! You are bad people unless you do what I tell you.” That’s preaching, and it is offensive. The reader may respond in one of three ways to preaching words.

 
  1. Wow, you have really convinced me to change my ways! I’ll do what you tell me to do. (This is the least likely response.)
  2. I understand your opinion, but I have other options, other things I can do instead. (While this response is very polite, it is also unlikely.)
  3. Who are you to tell me what to do? You have no authority over me. (This is the most likely response.)

 

 

 

 

Our recommendation: Avoid preaching to your readers.