Just Yell “DUCK!”

07/11/2025

One of my favorite skits is about the serious consequences of not speaking plainly. 

It’s a spoof about medieval warriors winning a battle and the leader, astride a horse, begins with, “This day you fought with honor. This day you vanquished those that mean to smite us. The dark lord forged his enemies to wreak their terror but we persevered and…” 

A soldier, standing below him, says, “Uh, one thing I thought I might bring up: We are using way too many words. We could really speed things up around here if we just cut down on the wordage.

“Like, in battle today when you yelled, ‘Noble horde raise thy shields from yonder field battle approaches, thine enemies arrows…’ Next time just yell, ‘Duck!’ A lot of us died before you finished talking.”

For those of us who make our living communicating, this video is funny. But it also brings to mind the many organizations in the housing field that complicate and “pretzel” words until no one — except us — knows what they mean.

In other words, housing friends,  we’re the man on the horse.

We use terms like, “user-centered design,”  “intersectional equity,”  and “naturally occurring affordable housing.”

If the guy on the horse worked in housing, here’s what it would look like, say, if he talked about why housing combined with services is an important solution to help some folks live their best lives:

“Housing First is a proven evidence-based approach to ending homelessness that centers on quickly moving people experiencing homelessness into independent and permanent supportive housing that is non-time-limited and then providing wraparound services without any preconditions to housing.”

If you don’t work in housing, you need to reread that several times. And even then, you might need a flow chart.

Our Jumble of Jargon Stalls Our Movement

We have good intentions. The housing field is made up of researchers, lawyers and policy makers who are experts in their work and know how important it is to be precise. Others are organizers and advocates who have their own special brand of language and way of talking.

We want to speak with nuance and data and explain our 27-point plan in detail. If we don’t, it feels like we’re dumbing down our positions and solutions.  

And sometimes, we speak and write this way out of fear of communicating the wrong thing or being judged by our partners or funders. It’s a lot easier to use a jumble of jargon than say it like we would to a friend.

But the impact of our wordiness is deadly serious. (Read more in The Chronicle of Philanthropy about the danger of jargon.)  

First, when we use overly complicated language, it has the opposite effect of what we intended. Instead of being inclusive and thorough, we are leaving people behind.

The average person in this country reads at a 7th or 8th grade level. So if people don’t get what we are saying, they will stop listening and turn to those who are easier to understand.

And we lose the opportunity to grow our movement and build our power.

Second, it makes it easy to dismiss housing solutions, especially for those who need the most support, as bureaucratic and elitist double-speak.

And lastly, opposition groups and some lawmakers use our complicated language against us to misrepresent what it really means to provide people with housing and supportive services so they can stop public investments that get people into safe and stable homes. 

Much of the public is already skeptical and laboring under false narratives about housing and homelessness. Attention spans — across all generations — are short. And society has developed a whole different way of speaking and sharing information.  

Keep it Simple and Connect to What People Care About

At the Housing Narrative Lab, we are on a mission to get the housing world to speak plainly. If I could put it on a bumper sticker, it would say, “Keep It Simple Superstar (KISS).” With a kiss emoji. 💋

I recognize this is uncomfortable. It’s hard to consider communicating in a new way. Even harder to actually do it!

But it’s very likely that we are not reaching vast numbers of people to join our movement to create a world where everyone has a home because of how we talk to them.  

So what can we do instead?

• Be intentional about using plain language by using words most people would use in everyday conversation. 
• Cut back on providing every single detail and instead focus on three to five main points.
• Lean into active instead of passive voice. 
• Use short, simple sentences that connect with the things people care about: The rent that’s too high, community health and safety, stable, good-paying jobs. 

For example, what if we talked about housing plus services like this:

“No matter who we are, we all need a home to be safe, healthy and thriving. Providing stable, affordable housing and the services people need to rebuild their lives works. And when everyone in our community is healthy and safe, our community is stronger.”

No flow chart needed. The more readable (and speakable), the more engagement.

No doubt that there are times when speaking in technical ways makes sense, like when talking to a funder who wants the details about your work or a policy analyst or researcher who needs to understand how your solution will make a difference. 

Other times, like when speaking to lawmakers, consider switching to plain language — it has the advantage of implicitly helping them understand how to talk about the issue with their constituents.

Using more plain language will take time and some fits and starts. But we can get there, housing friends.

Just like the man on the horse in the skit, who tried and failed several times to kick his wordy habit, until he finally got it and cheered, quite simply but effectively: “We won!”

RESOURCES
Here are a few free and paid tools you can use to help you keep your language clear, direct and more readable:

• Grammarly: An AI writing partner that helps you create content that’s easy for others to understand.
• Microsoft readability score: Set up this feature in Word to see whether it’s easy to understand what you write, including for an 8th grader.
• Hemingway Editor: This app identifies your too-wordy sentences, passive voice and more to help you keep it short and simple.