5 ms·

"Omit unnecessary words."

by chasing 13y ago

bigben 13y ago
eschew surplusage
- RyanMcGreal 13y ago
  Why use big words when grandiloquent locutions suffice?
  - eCa 13y ago
    Like a good wine words tend to grow with time. (I believe the parent quoted Twain.)
kalid 13y ago
This is the right amount of brevity, IMO. "Omit words" doesn't give you a hueristic about what to omit. "Needless" gives a test you can apply to every word. "Omit words" sounds simpler, even obvious, but only because you know it's a shortened form of "omit needless words". We could shorten the advice to "simplify", but that doesn't give you the how.
- dllthomas 13y ago
  If a word is needed, obviously you won't omit it. It's a tongue in cheek response to the EoS quote ("Omit needless words"), not - devoid context - serious style guidance.
vickytnz 13y ago
I hope everyone knows you're quoting "The Elements of Style" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elements_of_Style
- dllthomas 13y ago
  ... and I hope everyone is aware of both the virtues and the limits of that work.
  - rthomas6 13y ago
    I'm not. Care to enlighten me?
    - dllthomas 13y ago
      Virtues: A lot of the style rules are great guidelines. Limitations: minor: Style rules shouldn't be followed when they make things awkward or harder to understand; that's more a problem with some readers than the book, but it's something to keep in mind... less minor: A lot of the grammar proscriptions are confused at best (and not followed by the authors themselves, in that work or others). Language Log has oodles of examples: http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll
      - _delirium 13y ago
        A fun parlor game: choose a claim from the book that you think the book itself follows. Then your opponent has 5 minutes to find a counter-example.
        dllthomas 13y ago
        Very nice.
    - FreakLegion 13y ago
      There was a good article in the Chronicle of Higher Education a while back: http://chronicle.com/article/50-Years-of-Stupid-Grammar/25497 http://chronicle.com/article/50-Years-of-Stupid-Grammar/2549...
      - dllthomas 13y ago
        Note that Pullum is also the one who's probably written the most about this on LL, but certainly that's a nice consolidated case instead of a scattering of examples - thanks! :)

"Omit unnecessary words."

by chasing 13y ago

"Omit unnecessary words."

bigben 13y ago

eschew surplusage

RyanMcGreal 13y ago
Why use big words when grandiloquent locutions suffice?
- eCa 13y ago
  Like a good wine words tend to grow with time. (I believe the parent quoted Twain.)

kalid 13y ago

This is the right amount of brevity, IMO. "Omit words" doesn't give you a hueristic about what to omit. "Needless" gives a test you can apply to every word. "Omit words" sounds simpler, even obvious, but only because you know it's a shortened form of "omit needless words". We could shorten the advice to "simplify", but that doesn't give you the how.

dllthomas 13y ago
If a word is needed, obviously you won't omit it. It's a tongue in cheek response to the EoS quote ("Omit needless words"), not - devoid context - serious style guidance.

vickytnz 13y ago

I hope everyone knows you're quoting "The Elements of Style" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elements_of_Style

dllthomas 13y ago
... and I hope everyone is aware of both the virtues and the limits of that work.
- rthomas6 13y ago
  I'm not. Care to enlighten me?
  - dllthomas 13y ago
    Virtues: A lot of the style rules are great guidelines. Limitations: minor: Style rules shouldn't be followed when they make things awkward or harder to understand; that's more a problem with some readers than the book, but it's something to keep in mind... less minor: A lot of the grammar proscriptions are confused at best (and not followed by the authors themselves, in that work or others). Language Log has oodles of examples: http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll
    - _delirium 13y ago
      A fun parlor game: choose a claim from the book that you think the book itself follows. Then your opponent has 5 minutes to find a counter-example.
      - dllthomas 13y ago
        Very nice.
  - FreakLegion 13y ago
    There was a good article in the Chronicle of Higher Education a while back: http://chronicle.com/article/50-Years-of-Stupid-Grammar/25497 http://chronicle.com/article/50-Years-of-Stupid-Grammar/2549...
    - dllthomas 13y ago
      Note that Pullum is also the one who's probably written the most about this on LL, but certainly that's a nice consolidated case instead of a scattering of examples - thanks! :)