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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

(Anonymous) wrote:
Dec. 30th, 2008 11:44 pm (UTC)
Missing Link to the Article
You may want to change your link to the "How to Say Nothing in 500 Words or Less" article, the original article is no longer at that location this post says it is. This is a common problem we find in SEO, and I recently wrote about it on our blog, which you may find interesting, and also includes an updated link to this great article.

Portland Search Engine Marketing Blog (http://www.engineworks.com/blog/2008/12/05/defend-your-web-and-hard-earned-links/)