(Stott)
What really matters is:
1. Always try to use the language so as to make quite clear what you mean, and make sure your sentence couldn't mean anything else.
2. Always prefer the plain direct word to the long vague one. Don't 'implement' promises, but 'keep' them.
3. Never use abstract nouns when concrete ones will do. If you mean 'more people died', don't say 'mortality rose'.
4. Don't use adjectives which merely tell us how you want to feel about a thing you are describing. I mean, instead of telling us a thing was 'terrible', describe it so that we'll be terrified. Don't say it was 'delightful', make us say 'delightful' when we've read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only saying to your readers 'please will you do my job for me'.
5. Don't use words too big for the subject. 'Don't say 'infinitely' when you mean 'very'; otherwise you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.
Answer one of the following:
1. Which rule do you find broken
or do you break most often? How?
2. Would you add any rules for today? What
is it?
7 comments:
I feel that 2 and 3 are broken most. Today's world is to be politically correct even if you don't tell the truth. What you get is sin covered up in painted colors that hide the truth. Once you remove all of the paint it is still sin.
If I could add a rule it would be, KEEP IT SIMPLE AND SPEAK THE TRUTH IN LOVE.
Feb 15, 2007
I have had to learn not to commit “verbicide” through years of academic writing, however, when I wrote my dissertation my prayer was for the Lord to give me enough words so I would sound scholarly. But I probably fall short on using adjectives instead of describing the even and bringing people into my word picture.
Number 4 might be the most difficult. "Don't sell the steak, sell the sizzle" As a salesman,you learn people buy what they "want", that is, what the product can do for them. If you can make them feel the "want" via an emotion, they will soon "need" it. Telling a story simply, accurately and memorably is the challenge.
I don’t know quite where this fits in C. S. Lewis’s word description or as a “rules for today”, but what comes to mind as possibly most violated are elements of the process of “bridging” from yesterday (what the author originally meant) to applications for today. It seems that frequently the process of interpretation and evaluation are violated or ignored in that the context is set aside and the literal meaning of translated words is applied to the “here and now” without an understanding of the original context. Another violation is taking so small a portion of a text that the context can’t be determined, yet the literal meaning of each word is applied to a “now” situation. (Another error by some writers is the rather consistent use of run-on sentences…)
I think that pride, lack of discipline cause these rules to be broken. I have trouble with all of them. Lest I incriminate myself further, I will simply share some interesting quotes of others:
"Remember to never split an infinitive. The passive voice should never be used. Do not put statements in the negative form. Proofread carefully to see if you words out. And don't start a sentence with a conjugation." (William Safire)
"Everything you say is boring and incomprehensible", she said, "but that alone doesn't make it true." (Franz Kafka)
The ill and unfit choice of words wonderfully obstructs the understanding. (Francis Bacon)
Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler. (Albert Einstein)
I know you believe you understand what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant."
Being the naturally lazy sort and also tending toward a slowness of wit, I find myself most often violating rule 4.
Finding it far easier to allow others to do my job for me, I have made adjectives a valued friend and am, therefore, afraid that I do over use them.
It is easier to say that I find this course "delightful", or "wonderful", or "interesting", rather than to say that it challenges me to think more deeply on the Word of God and thereby opens God's Word more completely to me.
God Bless, Stuart
My problem is too much verbage. I try to give too much information and find it hard to cut it down.
I don't want to go on my own in interpreting the Bible. I just want to go on God's Word and not my own ideas. I have a fear of putting my own comments into anything in relation to God's Word.
God Bless, Ollie
Post a Comment