Antoni Lee’s blog

Robert Louis Stevenson said that when we know all a person’s adjectives, we have all his or her treasures.

In a media interview, speech or presentation, when a person overuses a word we accept that it’s out of habit and we bear with it. Perhaps he or she loves the word, ‘awesome,’ or ‘absolutely,’ and peppers the conversation with one of those words. When it goes on and on, we tune its meaning out. Overusing a word or phrase dilutes its power.

In another category of favourites, some words sound good when spoken. Words like absquatulate, crepuscular and sesquipedalian tumble nicely out of the mouth. Unfortunately when they land on people’s ears, the results may not be what we anticipated.

I’m all for music in language, but unless you’re William Faulkner, using obscure or overly long words can be a bad idea:

1. It can look like showing off.
2. It can embarrass people when they don’t know what one of your words means.
3. It makes of a fool of the speaker or writer who rushes in and misuses words.
4. It can be a long-winded, woolly, unnecessary substitute for a short, clear word.

Some rules of thumb:

1. Use words that express rather than impress.
2. Don’t use a word just because it sounds good. Use words in palette and context.
3. Use adjectives for specificity, not emphasis.
4. Don’t overuse a word or phrase. Repetition works best when it’s intentional and well-placed.

Many writers have useful things to say on this topic, including George Orwell, Mark Twain, William Zinsser and Sol Stein.

A friend sent me a link to a new Internet browser add-on that claims to highlight occurrences of spin in web pages. The site owners say that spin is a threat to democracy.

I don’t doubt that lies are told in the name of public information and news on any given day, but I (perhaps naively) continue to think that the best protection for democracy is not machines telling us when something is awry, but using our brains to review, interpret and judge information.

I will continue to feel safer making up my own mind about whether something seems informed, properly sourced, balanced, logical and so on.