Simple words can be more effective

Not long ago a friend of mine went to one of those dreary environmental conferences where they talk about how polluted the Chesapeake Bay is, but he came back raving about a speaker at the conference.

His name was Eric Eckl, and his topic was "Water Words That Work." Mr. Eckl is an environmentalist and also a marketing consultant who understands how to persuade people.

He said that scientists, government officials and his fellow environmentalists too often bury their message under piles of professional jargon, mushy buzzwords, arcane terminology and opaque acronyms.

Their environmental messages fail to get through...