Prefer the familiar word to the far-fetched. Prefer the concrete word to the abstract. Prefer the single word … - Henry Watson Fowler

Same topic Authors

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I try to treat every job with the exact same level of respect. When I go into it, it doesn't matter what the budget is or who the lead actor is. You should have the same focus and the same drive, and you should have as much empathy for your character and understanding of them as you would, no matter what.

Henry Watson Fowler

Prefer the familiar word to the far-fetched. Prefer the concrete word to the abstract. Prefer the single word to the circumlocution. Prefer the short word to the long. Prefer the Saxon word to the Romance.

Long, Romance, Abstract, Single, Circumlocution, Familiar

Same Author Quotes

Any one who wishes to become a good writer should endeavour, before he allows himself to be tempted by the more showy qualities, to be direct, simple, brief, vigorous, and lucid.

Lucid, Showy, Simple, Vigorous, Wish, Writing

The purpose of paragraphing is to give the reader a rest. The writer is saying. . . : Have you got that? If so, I'll go to the next point.

Giving, Purpose, Rest, Writer, Writing

Anyone who finds himself putting down several commas close to one another should reflect that he is making himself disagreeable.

Close, Commas, Disagreeable, Making, Several, Should

Those who run to long words are mainly the unskillful and tasteless; they confuse pomposity with dignity, flaccidity with ease, and bulk with force.

Dignity, Ease, Long, Running, Tasteless

Quotation. . . A writer expresses himself in words that have been used before because they give his meaning better than he can give it himself, or because they are beautiful or witty, or because he expects them to touch a cord of association in his reader, or because he wishes to show that he is learned and well read. Quotations due to the last motive are invariably ill-advised; the discerning reader detects it and is contemptuous; the undiscerning is perhaps impressed, but even then is at the same time repelled, pretentious quotations being the surest road to tedium.

Beautiful, Contemptuous, Expects, Giving, Impressed, Witty