Replace These Words in Your Letter

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Writing is difficult, strange and rather new in the scheme of human existence. We’ve been talking for maybe half a million years , but we’ve only been writing about 5000. So sometimes we write things that we’ll never say out loud. We use a complex or “smart-sounding” word when a simpler word works better. New York Times editor Dan Salzstein has listed some great examples on Twitter . They appear in the media, but also in “business speech”. If you are trying to write efficiently, pay attention to the following:

Twitter users have suggested a lot more. (> is a greater than sign, not an arrow. The words on the left are better.)

We want to add:

  • Name> dub
  • Turn> Render
  • Large> massive
  • Maybe> maybe

Of course, these are not rules; they are just sentences, the language is fluid, yadda yadda. Almost all of the “minor” words above have good uses. Save them for this purpose. To use something, you need to “make the most of it.” Something overgrown “spreads unkempt or unevenly over a large area.” Costumes are made to order, and medieval knights are killed. Okay, you’ve been waiting to add your own – go for it.

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