Correct what You Read
It might improve your writing
Much of what we read went to the press well before it completed its adolescence. As a result, it offends our eyes, grates upon our ears, and makes us weep for the present condition of the quill-driver’s art. Happily, this cloud, as gray as it might be, sports a silver lining; for the products of premature publication offer us opportunities to improve our own writing.
Consider, if you will, the following, which I found in a book, written by a young professor of English in the late 1930s, about effective communication.
Basing our actions towards our fellow human beings on such hastily abstracted judgements, it is no wonder that we frequently make life miserable not only for others, but for ourselves.
As a final example of this type of confusion, notice the difference between what happens when a man says to himself, ‘I have failed three times’, and what happens when he says, ‘I am a failure!’ It is the difference between sanity and self-destruction.Marvelous to say, this passage, which counsels readers to replace abstractions with specifics, provides us with the key to its improvement. Thus, when we follow the advice of its author, we get something like the following, a paragraph that makes the original point in a livelier, more accessible, way.
When we put labels on people, we make them miserable. Consider the difference between ‘He has failed three times!’ and ‘He is a failure!’. It separates sanity from despair.Source for passage:
S.I. Hayakawa Language in Action (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1941) page 145
(In its day, this book sold well. As a result, dealers in used books often offer second-hand copies at reasonable prices.)
For Further Reading:
