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standing. Comic-book copy uses almost no adjectives; theses written for college degrees run as
high as two qualifying adjectives for every verb.
Try to keep all action words in the present. Try to keep your story happening today, not yesterday
or tomorrow. No one ever lived yesterday or will live tomorrow. All human beings have always
lived today — the future and the past are artificial concepts we build in our minds — that takes
effort and imagination. Anything you do to lessen the effort required of your reader will make
your copy more successful. It takes far less effort to think about what is happening now than to
reconstruct what happened yesterday or will happen tomorrow. Do not give your reader any
unnecessary mental tasks — do as much thinking for him as possible and he will reward you with
closer attention.
Stick to Anglo-Saxon.
Have you ever had to use the word "belch" in a letter? Some people think it is an inelegant word.
Suppose you were told not to use it but still had to express the action. What could you use? There
is only one word and that is "eruct." Did you know there is such a word as "eruct"? And can the
word ever mean "belch" to you — or could it mean "belch" to anyone else if you use the word?
This is an unusual example to point up the importance of using Anglo-Saxon words whenever
possible in your writing.
More Americans know more Anglo-Saxon words and use them in their normal speech than will
ever know Latin root words. Anglo-Saxon words are generally short — and given a choice, we will
choose a short word before a long one. They are forceful, they are direct, they are action words.
They express your thoughts fast and without confusion.
Here are some common Anglo-Saxon expressions: "Stop, thief!" "Ready, aim, fire!" "Who goes
there?" "Get ready, get set, go!" "I love you." "You are fired!" "Be still!" Try expressing any of
these with Latin root words and you will throw away the power. When we want words of command,
words to start or stop action, we use Anglo-Saxon words. And when we want to release
energy, we swear, also in Anglo-Saxon.
You won't have to look up all the words you use to determine their origins. If you have a choice
of words, the shorter word will usually be Anglo-Saxon, the shorter word will be more concrete,
and the shorter word will be easier to understand.
Don't Be Trapped.
Some of us try to avoid repeating a word too often for fear of boring the reader. So we hunt for
synonyms to give variety and change of pace. But we are likely to fall into a trap in our search for
synonyms. There is no word in English that has the same meaning as another word. If it ever happens,
one of the words will die quickly. Each word in the language has its own special meaning
or it would not exist.
When you use a synonym instead of your original word, you move away from the first meaning
you planted in your reader's mind. You are asking your reader to change his thought, the thought
you have just given him. That is mental work for the reader. He doesn't like it and it won't do you
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