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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tom Clarke who wrote (80104)	1/5/2004 10:39:29 AM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82486

Strunk and White instruct us not to inject opinion into our writing. They also tell us to avoid "fancy words." Would you want to read literature devoid of "fancy words"? Strunk and White are not counseling us on how to write literature. I can't imagine they would be opposed to fancy words in literature. For expository writing, their advice is pretty good.

To: Tom Clarke who wrote (80104)	1/5/2004 1:47:45 PM
From: The Philosopher	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82486

Would you want to read literature devoid of "fancy words"? Yep. Given how they define fancy words -- "the elaborate,the pretentions,the coy, and the cute. Do not be tempted by a twenty-dollar word when there is a ten-center handy, ready and able." Examples of fancy words are beauteous sky, curvaceous blonde, discombobulate. Not a single fancy word in E.B. White's writing, which is some of the best in the English language, nor in George Orwell. Nor in Shakespeare, Trollope, Jane Austen. Nor in any good translation of Plato, the Iliad, or the Odysssey. Pretty good company, those books.