Yes. It can. Or, at least, it can be too clever.

I love writing – I feel so lucky to do it for a living. In my old job, on occasion I’ve lingered in my ‘sent’ folder over a beautifully crafted email (I know, I know. Not healthy. Or productive). Writing’s what I do when I want to relax in the evening. Doodling in notebooks or on my blog (the other one).

But that’s a very different kettle of fish to writing about your work.

When you’re writing to or for your (potential) clients, you don’t want your words to GET IN THE WAY. I don’t think George Orwell was talking about webpages or blogs back in 1946 when he wrote

Good prose is like a windowpane.

But it works for our purposes anyway.
What you want words to do is let the light in. Flowery, misleading, overblown, long-winded, irrelevant words – they’re what your audience will notice.

And if they’re busy noticing your words, they won’t notice the shiny things you have to make their lives or the world better.

Clean windows to let the light in. That’s what you’re after.