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  • The Elegant Variation is "Fowler’s (1926, 1965) term for the inept writer’s overstrained efforts at freshness or vividness of expression. Prose guilty of elegant variation calls attention to itself and doesn’t permit its ideas to seem naturally clear. It typically seeks fancy new words for familiar things, and it scrambles for synonyms in order to avoid at all costs repeating a word, even though repetition might be the natural, normal thing to do: The audience had a certain bovine placidity, instead of The audience was as placid as cows. Elegant variation is often the rock, and a stereotype, a cliché, or a tired metaphor the hard place between which inexperienced or foolish writers come to grief. The familiar middle ground in treating these homely topics is almost always the safest. In untrained or unrestrained hands, a thesaurus can be dangerous."
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August 25, 2009

BACK IN SEPTEMBER

Summer

Well, between a nasty summer cold and a lovely baby daughter, it seems it's time for my annual end-of-summer hiatus.  Posting will be infrequent at best until Labor Day-ish, but I reserve to right to pop up if something catches my eye.  Until then, I wish all my loyal readers and their loved ones a happy end to their summer.  Back before you know it.  Until then, please do visit the fine sites in my blogroll.

Posted by TEV at 04:34 PM in Housekeeping |

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THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
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