You don't want to repel readers. This doesn't mean you have to flatter them or avoid saying something they may disagree with. It does mean you must respect them. Don't take their interest for granted or suppose that it is the readers' job to follow you. | For more material and information please visit 282 DICTION is an attempt to cast a verbal spell over the job of quality control in a watch factory. This is shorter simpler and clearer A worker checks the watch s accuracy. Confusion about the subject also leads to wordiness Music is similar to dress fads in that its styles change from time to time. Perhaps the change is subtle but no one style of music will remain on top for a very long time. I am not talking about classical music but rather about popular music that appeals to the majority of young people. This writer did not begin with a word specific enoughfor his subject. He chose too general a term music . The final sentence reveals that he himself felt the problem for he spends twenty words explaining what kind of music he means. How much easier to have begun Popular music is similar to dress fads. . . . Sometimes deadwood stems from ignorance of words. That s the problem here In this novel part of the theme is stated directly in so many words and part is not so much said in specific words but is more or less hinted at. Had the writer known the terms explicit and implicit he could have made the point more clearly and concisely In this novel part of the theme is explicit and part is implicit. A limited vocabulary is no disgrace. We all suffer that handicap and education is the process of overcoming it. But while it may be pardonable not knowing the right word often re- For more material and information please visit CONCISION 283 suits in obscurity and deadwood. It helps to keep a list of pairs like explicit and implicit which enable you to make distinctions quickly and neatly extrinsic intrinsic concrete abstract actual ideal absolute relative are other examples. Finally excessive caution contributes to deadwood. Some people are afraid to express anything as certain. They will write It seems that Columbus discovered the New World in 1492. Certainly some things call for .
