Well, let me say this too, I write a number of papers, and I have to submit these papers to various and sundry bodies--and yes I'll admit that I've come across some boobs that have written some strange papers that really don't say anything. But in point of fact I cannot in many of my documents--as a matter of fact in all my documents--I can't simplify it because the true meaning, the clear understanding and essence of the phraseology it is imperative that I use the English language in an extremely constructive way so that people have a comprehensive understanding of exactly what I am trying to impart. Because when you're reading words, you're not looking at the person's face; you're not hearing their voice; you're not getting their vocal inflection, or any type of glare in their eyes--you're just on the written word. So without the colour, without the substance and depth of the verbiage, there's a very good chance you can lose the substance of their meaning in the application.

Who's your audience Paul, when you're writing?

It varies. I can write to some people in the federal government--I do work with the Canadian Coast Guard, so in other instances I might be working with engineers. So I'm not writing in such a way so it's key holed to PhD's only. I have to write in such a way that it's going to address a fairly broad spectrum, someone from a PhD to an engineer to a general staff that would work in the Department of Fisheries and Oceans etcetera. I'm not writing to a very narrow group of people who are highly educated. It's a fairly broad spectrum.

But they're all professionals, is what you're saying.

No, not in the true sense of the word. It could be a third engineer reading the document. For example, the systems that I sell I have to put clear understanding in the documents and manuals so that when they can't get a hold of me they can read my manual to get the essence of what I'm saying. And these are guys that are sometimes working on the tools. So it's not simply a case of using five-syllable words at all times, but to completely write a sentence and a paragraph to make sure that the full meaning and the full intelligence of the message I'm trying to send is completely understood.

All right Paul, I'm going to hold you there. Michelle earlier you talked about the importance of the full meaning being incredibly specific for someone who's trying to fix an airplane at ten thousand feet, and I think that for some of what Paul was getting at. But maybe to switch professions I'd say that maybe it's okay for, say, actuaries in an insurance company to use one form of language when they're communicating with each other, but when we're trying to write instructions to clients or the public that maybe they should use a different form of writing.

That's exactly what I'm trying to say, most definitely. Different language works in different contexts, and again I think that the key factor is that when someone else is outside that context, they're needing to do something with that information, think about what you want to see happen and whether you need to use the words that traditionally have been used to help them accomplish that task.