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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/40606
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I suppose it depends largely on the context of your writing. If you're writing for a more general audience composed of just your average reader, then taking a few moments to edit your work, replacing complex words with more commonly used ones and simplifying sentence structure, would be a good start. This is not to say that you have to simplify your idea beyond comprehension or that you have to edit so much that it takes away from the meaning of your work, but keep in mind that people read best when the information is presented to them in a way they can understand. If you're writing to a more specific audience, for example, people you know will have a background in academia, you can afford to elevate your language because these people are more used to reading with complex sentence structure and vocabulary.

Every word in the English language serves a purpose given a specific context, so my advice is to use the word that BEST describes what it is you're talking about- just because flowerly language sounds elegant doesn't mean it's best suited to what you are trying to write!

That being said, there is always going to be a difference between writing that sounds complex and writing that sounds pretentious, even though both usually draw from the same pool of vocabulary and have similar sentence structures- if you're still unsure, have somebody else read it for you! Ask them to let you know what they think, I'm sure they will be honest!

Hope this helped!

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