Keep Those Letters Simple

I consider myself a fairly intelligent, well-educated and well-read person. As a major capital improvements engineering project manager at the L.A. Department of Water and Power, first and foremost on my list of qualifications for such a position, which I have held for 15 years now and spent nearly half a billion dollars’ of the city of Los Angeles water and power rate payer money building “really big things,” is clear communication. It is vital to success for a person in my field. If I can’t make people understand what I want from them my projects will go off course, over budget, and probably never get built. Well, not really. I’ll probably just get disciplined and replaced with someone who can communicate clearly.

In this morning’s letter to the editor (Jan. 29), Christopher Lucero of Saugus took issue with the writings of Brian Richards of Stevenson Ranch for Mr. Richards’ apparent miscommunication and misinformation regarding vaccines and immunity. I had no problem with Mr. Lucero’s position per se. He presented some very good points regarding Mr. Richards’ (letter) when it comes to the technicalities of medical science, immunology and epidemiology.

Mr. Lucero repeatedly stressed the importance of correctness and clear communication and I could not agree with him more on that matter as it is essential to project success in my own profession.

What I could not understand is why Mr. Lucero wrote a letter stressing the need for clear communication in such a way that I not only had to look up some of his words (i.e. apophthegm and dyspeptic — I’m not a scholar) but also had to reread it four times before I was clear on what he was trying to say because it was so convoluted. What’s the word for that? Irony?

If I may so bold I will offer another word, a word of advice in pursuit of more effective letterwriting to Mr. Lucero.

Just one word. Simplicity.

Arthur Saginian Santa Clarita