一项最新研究结果显示，写作时，简练的语言加上标准的字体会让你看起来更出色；只有那些不太聪明的作者才会使用没有必要的长词和复杂的字体，而这也是学生们在润色自己的作业时通常使用的两种方法。

    据美国“生活科学网”日前报道，美国普林斯顿大学的丹尼尔·奥本海默不久前通过改变文章语言或字体复杂性进行了5个相关试验。文章样本包括研究院申请表、社会学学位论文文摘和笛卡尔一本著作的译文等。

    研究发现，互联网文本和书写程序（如微软Word等）默认的新罗马字体和斜体字比较起来，这种以便于阅读的字体书写的语言简练的文章比那些花哨复杂的文章更容易被认为是出自更优秀作者之手。奥本海默说，“让一篇文章难以阅读和理解的任何因素，如不必要词语或者复杂的字体等，都会降低读者对该文章及文章作者的评价”。 　

    他还说，尽管如此，这一研究并非表示长词就完全不可取，只有在不必要的情况下使用才会造成问题。他说：“在学生中，使用华丽的词语和花哨的字体仍十分普遍，这可能是由于他们尚未意识到这些小伎俩会适得其反。”

    Many fledgling writers have been taught the mnemonic KISS: Keep it simple, stupid. A new study backs the wisdom of that advice.

    Long words used needlessly along with complicated font styles -- two tactics employed routinely by students trying to pad their work -- are perceived as coming from less intellgent writers.

    Or, to put it simply: Short words and classic fonts make you look smart.

    Daniel Oppenheimer at Princeton University conducted five experiments manipulating the complexity of vocabulary or font style. Samples included graduate school applications, sociology dissertation abstracts, and translations of a work by Descartes.

    Times New Roman, the default font for Internet text and writing programs like Microsoft Word, was contrasted by the italicized Juice font (the sort of font you might see in a homemade newsletter that's trying to be more than it is).

    The simple writing done in the easy-to-read font tended to be rated as coming from a more intelligent author than the more complex drafts.

    "Anything that makes a text hard to read and understand, such as unnecessarily long words or complicated fonts, will lower readers' evaluations of the text and its author," Oppenheimer said.

    He added, though, that the study does not suggest long words are inherently bad, but only that using them needlessly is a problem. So why do so many people do it?

    "The continuing popularity amongst students of using big words and attractive font styles may be due to the fact that they may not realize these techniques could backfire," Oppenheimer said. "One thing seems certain: write as simply and plainly as possible and it's more likely you'll be thought of as intelligent."