3 ms·
I wasn't clear or you're blurring information content and density and thereby missing my point (!). Consider: - VERBOSE: “One of the best things you can do for
by frig 17y ago
I wasn't clear or you're blurring information content and density and thereby missing my point (!). Consider:
- VERBOSE: “One of the best things you can do for
yourself to improve your writing is to learn
how to cut out words that are not
necessary.”
- TAUT: “To improve your writing, cut out
unnecessary words.”
In at least the senses I care about I don't see any information in TAUT absent from VERBOSE; if you see any such information TAUT please do point it out.
Which is what I was getting at: TAUT prose communicates identical thoughts with fewer words; why is it so difficult and unnatural to generate?
I find this curious. I now have some suspicions but nothing extremely well-formed.
(!) You'd be right that in the context of essays-for-school the target wordcount is predetermined and information is expensive so the lazy satisfy the requirement(s) with the verbal equivalent of double-spacing + jumbo font.
- thras 17y agoRe-read the original commenter once you realize he was talking about information-per-word, not total information content.
- mcav 17y agoIn verbose form, it's almost like letting your thoughts spew onto the page directly. With taut writing, a lot of that mental clarification is done in your head before it hits the page.
- frig 17y agoBut why are thoughts jumbled, mostly? Is there anything to be learned from the structure of the jumbling? No answers, just getting it out there.