7 Keep it Concise: The KISS Principle

The KISS principle has less to do with a 1970s glam band but is a saying to remind ourselves to keep our writing concise. The first mention of the KISS principle is attributed to an aircraft engineer named Kelly Johnson (Rich 231). Johnson is best known for designing the SR-71 Blackbird, a long-range, high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft that could reach speeds up to MACH 3. After retirement, Johnson worked as a senior advisor with Lockheed. Here, his mantra, “Keep it simple, stupid,” was a reminder to design with minimal unnecessary features and functions that could create conflicts.

Nowadays, the “stupid” is often replaced because the term can easily be interpreted as insulting. However, Johnson believed military machines should be designed so that someone in a combat zone could make repairs on the fly with basic tools. Therefore, the “stupid” is another adjective that describes the lack of technical complexity.

Keep it Short and Simple

Although not the person responsible for re-interpreting the principle, Susan Rooks, writing as the “Grammar Goddess,” states that K.I.S.S. stands for “Keep it Short and Simple.” According to Rooks, the application of the K.I.S.S. principle entails the following:
Consider the reader’s understanding of the subject. What do they know? What do they need to know? Don’t assume that they have the knowledge or perspective that you have – you’re the expert! Remember that, as a professional, you have expertise your audience may not have. Don’t assume that any concepts familiar to you are also to others. If you need to explain complex information
Keep sentences short. Less writing means less reading, which is important in busy professional environments. Shorter statements mean that your meaning and purpose must retain nearly as much meaning without losing clarity.
Stay away from jargon. Every profession uses jargon, or those terms and phrases familiar to practitioners in that field. Business professions use terms and acronyms that most readers (myself included) do not recognize or understand. In addition, many organizations have proprietary, or “in-house,” language that outsiders aren’t privy to. Jargon should be avoided in most forms of professional writing unless you are certain the audience will be familiar with them.

Keep it Short, Specific

I first encountered the KISS principle when taking computer programming courses. Although “stupid” was still included at that time (and may still be), I still appreciate the slightly different take of programmers, who applied it to ensure their programs would be easy to understand by other programmers. “One of the most important ways to do this is to write clear code,” describes veteran software designer Martin Fowler, “making it easy to understand what the program is supposed to do” (martinfowler.com).
In other words, good programmers will create code that accomplishes a specific task as clearly and concisely as possible. If you’re a non-programmer looking at a screen full of cod, it probably looks like gibberish. It may be surprising that, ideally, even non-programmers should be able to understand what the program does by looking at the code. This would be accomplished the same way we write professionally!

In addition to Rook’s strategies, use the following to keep your writing simple and specific:

• Avoid generalizations. Terms like “society” and “the world” imply a significance rarely appropriate to professional writing. With nearly 8 billion individuals inhabiting the Earth, few experiences are universal. If referring to a specific population, take time to identify them. Recognize differences as often as possible and avoid sweeping statements that rely on common sense. This is one of the true hallmarks of a thoughtful professional!
• Use precise terminology when necessary.
  Write our acronyms. Whenever we use an acronym, we write out the first usage, followed by the acronym in parentheses. For example: “As an instructor at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay (UWGB), I have taught numerous writing courses.”
• Use headings and subheadings strategically. When you have a longer document, structure and organize your content using headings and subheads. Headings help categorize and manage your content, but too many can create more confusion. Avoid beginning each paragraph with a heading. Pay close attention to your hierarchy because screen readers also use these elements to read content aloud to those who use assistive devices. Please see the chapter in the Style section for more details.
• Read your writing out loud. For those prone to run-on sentences (like yours truly), reading out loud is a great way to catch over-complicated sentences. You will not only hear some spelling and grammar errors but also get a better sense of the cadence and tone that your audience will be reading in. If you feel like you’re winded after reading – simplify!