Volume 21, Issue 3 - Writing Matters
English Grammar and Style
Authors: Wendy Kingdom, Susanne Goebel-Lauth, Stephen Gilliver, Elise Langdon-Neuner
Abstract
Good Writing Practice
As an editor, I have been battling against verbosity, redundant modifiers, and ‘buzz’ words for many years. New terms and turns of phrase or new meanings for words pop up all the time. Many of them have come with the information technology age and many of them stick, whether we like it or not. Some of them really do fill a gap, like ‘to enable’ meaning ‘switching something on’ or ‘make something functional’. Some are supposed to sound good because they are polysyllabic but don't, like ‘leveraging someone's help’; and some are evidence of sloppy and indiscriminate use of words. Others come into use because a term has been so devalued by overuse that it no longer sounds right unless used with a modifier (e.g. absolutely essential).
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References
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