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Colorless words

  • Jul. 27th, 2008 at 12:08 PM
ai
If you haven't already (or if you did but barely remember), I suggest your read "How to Say Nothing in 500 Words" by Paul McHenry Roberts.

If, unfortunately, you lack the will or time to read it wholly, at least you should try a summary.

This essay is a very good lesson on writing but it's not the reason why I share it with you today.

Though I've seen many instances of writing lessons that directly display the effects of their own teachings, this one is outstanding.

Just look my favorite paragraph :

Beware also of nouns of very general meaning, like circumstances, cases, instances, aspects, factors, relationships, attitudes, eventualities, etc. In most circumstances you will find that those cases of writing which contain too many instances of words like these will in this and other aspects have factors leading to unsatisfactory relationships with the reader resulting in unfavorable attitudes on his part and perhaps other eventualities, like a grade of "D." Notice also what etc. means. It means "I'd like to make this list longer, but I can't think of any more examples."


When I read the first two sentences, I thought :

"I see... Isn't this sentence a bit heavy though ? ...Hey... wait a minute!" XD

Comments

[info]elmiree wrote:
Aug. 3rd, 2008 08:10 pm (UTC)
Priceless.

If I had gotten my hands on this article back in my days as a second-year student at CPP, writing my essays on bland and boring topics such as "honesty", "gullibility" or "language" would have been so much easier! (and fun, of course)

And I agree, the witty sentence you mentioned here was spot-on :-)
[info]atarun wrote:
Aug. 3rd, 2008 11:56 pm (UTC)
Yeah, and most of it is directly applicable in French as well, isn't it ?
It's a must-read XD