Motivated Grammar provided an excellent discussion of word choice — specifically confusing homophones (like “your” and “you’re”).
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Amateurs fail after a misdeed
Anyone who avoids full responsibility after making a mistake counts as an amateur in my book. This past week, my students discussed the purpose and effectiveness of a letter from a publications manager to a group of volunteer editors. The consensus was that it effectively informed readers about the reasons for performance issues in the manager’s area, as well as plans to address them in the…
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Inkhorns and sesquipedalianism
I have been totally consumed with my day job the past few days. The semester starts at Bama next week. Cause I don’t want ya to think I forgot ya, I’m sending you to a nice piece by Stan Carey, who blogs at Sentence First. He talks about word choice and defines “inkhorn” and “sesquipedalianism” for…
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The psychology of word choice + rhetorical context
A couple of days ago, Gabe Doyle wrote an enlightening explanation of the psychology behind word choice. A writer has two options when deciding whether to use a word s/he has recognized as “questionable”: To satisfice by deciding the benefits of using it outweigh the costs To optimize by deciding to search for a better word…
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Developing Content | Dr. Kim's Philosophy | Focusing on Readers & Writers | Managing Style | Mastering Mechanics | Organizing Content | Platitudes
Amateurs need explicit knowledge — not platitudes
I shared my position on the use of short lectures in a writing class a couple of days ago. But I told only part of the story from the video lecture-tutorial + teaching note that will be published in the Journal of Organizational Behavior Education. The amateurs in my courses depend on me to make a professional’s tacit…
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The video tutorial on word choice
Because I have had to keep my administrative hat on a lot recently (I am working toward an August 1 deadline for a university report), it took a while to get the video tutorial on word choice complete. It was designed to help amateurs think about the choice of vocabulary in workplace documents thoughtfully, intentionally, and strategically….
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Pros know jargon is not a four-letter word
Amateurs often attribute the unethical intentions of individuals to the language those individuals use. Jargon is a case in point. Is jargon bad or evil or wrong? If you read my posts on passive voice and persuasion, you know I see considerable confusion between the tool itself and the intent of the person using it. So I see…
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The video tutorial on conciseness
My last post argued that the use of prescribed minimums does our students a disservice. They learn to fluff up their prose to make documents longer. When those students enter the workplace, their prose style is entrenched. That means, as a writing teacher who attempts to build a bridge between school and work, most of…
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Pros take time to trim their prose
One of the saddest practices in academic writing is prescribed minimums. I’m talking about teachers’ requirements for no less than 500 words, 5 pages, etc. (For a funny take on this, see I can write 600 words about anything from The Onion.) Of course, teachers prescribe minimums when their students have no real NEED to communicate…
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The video tutorial on parallel structure
The fact that the people in this photo are arranged with similar visual structure (in rows with the same color and design of clothing) is one of the main reasons you can quickly pick out a “team.” (The other reason has to do with spatial proximity.) The use of similarity to impose order the chaotic…
