(Read comments) - (Post a new comment)

wrongly_amused
2008-11-19 03:08 am UTC (link)

I wouldn't call it excessively common (at the least, it's an older turn of phrase), but I was familiar with the word and its meaning.

Even if you wanted to call it obscure,

mattybee argument doesn't hold water. Any writer worth their salt will tell you that precision of language vastly outweighs potential reader ignorance. What's really excessive and needless is using ten small words to describe an attitude that was easily summed up in one very specific and meaningful adjective. It's just sloppy, lazy writing to cater to the lowest denominator. There's a reason I always keep a dictionary on hand when I read, and if I can do it, anybody can. The reader is accountable for their ignorance, not the other way around.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	missdaisy 2008-11-19 03:18 am UTC (link)
	Honestly, I have a large and varied vocabulary because authors use precise and "uncommon" words in their writing. 95% of the time a reader can figure out the meaning from the context so it isn't jarring and adds to the eloquence of their communication skills. (Reply to this)(Parent)

tangentialone
2008-11-19 03:22 am UTC (link)

Any writer worth their salt will tell you that precision of language vastly outweighs potential reader ignorance.

Well, you just have to consider whether your intended audience is composed of:

1)people who will know the word in question,
2)people who will look up the word in question, or glean the meaning from context, or
3)people who will be angry that you made them feel stupid.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	fools_game 2008-11-19 04:00 am UTC (link)
	And then there's the school of literary academia based around the implied reader, which is not that writers write to a particular audience, but that the text itself suggests the appropriate audience. Usually those from category 1 or 2. (Those in category 3 are still on easy readers at age 35.) (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	tangentialone 2008-11-19 04:13 am UTC (link)
	You know, I think I like that school. It's so sensible! (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	fools_game 2008-11-19 04:18 am UTC (link)
	Don't write down to your audience. Your audience are the ones smart enough to understand you/dumb enough to not get frustrated by your condescension/dorky enough to get your references! (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	mary_mac 2008-11-19 02:31 pm UTC (link)
	The Terry Pratchett philosophy of 'my daughter was old enough when she was eight, my mother won't be old enough when she's eighty' philosphy of age-rating, then? (Reply to this)(Parent)

wrongly_amused
2008-11-19 06:48 am UTC (link)

I feel that kind of feeds into the purpose of the piece. I wouldn't use serious academia in something intended for common review. Polysyllabic words can become the unnecessary, sloppy parts of writing in the wrong context. But using one four syllable word, especially one with a very specific and intended meaning, in an otherwise fairly commonly worded application is not over the top.

Perhaps effectiveness of writing is more what I'm getting at. If it was a justifiable application in the context of the piece, the responsibility then falls on the reader to understand.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

eleutheria
2008-11-20 02:32 am UTC (link)

I was going to say something similar to this. I have a big issue with people who use jargon in posts intended for the everyday reader, I do think that's designed to make laypeople feel stupid and undereducated. (And for some terms, "just look it up" doesn't work. I spent two months reading things from my library to understand one person's jargon-laden post about postmodernism, Derrida, and critical theory, and still didn't get it.) But basic vocabulary, things that can be quickly looked up and understood, doesn't count as "jargon".

(Reply to this)(Parent)

	wahlee 2008-11-20 05:42 am UTC (link)
	I love it when writers use words I don't know (well, within reason. Words should elucidate your topic, not obscure it, and I read faaarrrr to many texts in my career as an English major that did the latter rather than the former). It means I gasp get to learn a new word! Yayness! (Reply to this)(Parent)

(Read comments) -