4 ms·
It tripped my “trying to hard to write eloquent, witty prose” senses. I proofread a lot of papers in college and wrote a lot of columns in the school newspaper.
by shijie 3y ago
It tripped my “trying to hard to write eloquent, witty prose” senses. I proofread a lot of papers in college and wrote a lot of columns in the school newspaper. This is a common style. Thesaurus-driven word choice.
- Pannoniae 3y agoBasically the "if I use fancy words, I sound smart to those who don't actually comprehend the words' meanings"
- maksimur 3y agoI don't know if it's the guy's case, however, there are people who actually delight themselves in writing complex sentences comparable to a mathematician's delight in doing mathematics or a painter's artistry on canvas. I'm noticing it's mainly an US-centric trend to have negative feelings towards good and complex writing.
- gcr 3y agoi used to do exactly this as an undergrad! i thought it made my writing sound whimsical or whatever, as if emulating the style of Lemony Snickett or _why the lucky stiff i've since replaced this (bad imho) habit with other bad habits, fortunately
- maksimur 3y agoIt goes without saying you shouldn't imitate the style of other people but have your own. Also, there's actually a feeling of joy in writing good prose and seeing the result, which is something I never mastered in English, as evidenced for example by my repeated use of "but", but (yeah..) kind of did in my native language.
- greenie_beans 3y agoyeah, it tripped my "this is college writing" sense.