Big words to sound smart usually backfire. Plain words are harder to write and easier to trust.

Complicated language is often a place to hide. A reader who has to work out what you meant has less attention left for whether you are right, and most people sense the padding even when they cannot name it. Saying something simply requires knowing exactly what you think, which is why it is harder and why it reads as confidence.

Take a paragraph you wrote for school and replace every long word you would not use out loud. Read it aloud and cut whatever makes you stumble. If a sentence gets shorter and still means the same thing, that was never your idea doing the work.