This is a perfect lesson. You work with words so you know what it means and the people who grew up in Chabad Houses know what it means because people who work with words use fancy words that their readers don't understand. Yes, cruse of oil sounds better to a writer than jug or jar, but if the reader doesn't understand it, there's no point in writing it.
Yes. I have to spend hours going back and forth with authors convincing them to use a word other people don't have to look up. They tell me it is more sophisticated. I tell them that when someone reads a sentence, he is supposed to understand it on the first try. It is not gemara.
I submitted a poem to the Washington Post Invitational, may it rest in peace, when the ran a poem contest "using only the 1000 most commonly used words:"
I fix writing of others, it isn't that fun.
I often change long words for a shorter one.
They don't really like this, they might be mad,
but maybe the reader's head won't hurt so bad.
Not my finest work, I admit, but the word choice was limited...
