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CSSSO Usage All this talk about good words and bad words brings us to a gray but important area called "usage." What is good usage? What is good English? What newly minted words is it O.K. to use, and who is to be the judge? Is it O.K. to use "O.K."? Earlier I mentioned an incident of college students hassling the administration, and in the last chapter I described myself as a word freak. Here are two fairly recent arrivals. "Hassle" is both a verb and a noun, meaning to give somebody a hard time, or the act of being given a hard time, and anyone who has ever been hassled for not properly filling out Form 35-BX will agree that the word sounds exactly right. "Freak" means an enthusiast, and there's no missing the aura of obsession that goes with calling someone a jazz freak, or a chess freak, or a sun freak, though it would probably be pushing my luck to describe a man who compulsively visits circus sideshows as a freak freak. Anyway, I accept these two usages gladly. I don't consider them slang, or put quotation marks around them to show that I'm mucking about in the argot of the youth culture and really
Usage 39 know better. They're good words and we need them. But I won't accept "notables" and "greats" and "upcoming" and many other newcomers. They are cheap words and we don't need them. Why is one word good and another word cheap? I can't give you an answer, because usage has no fixed boundaries. Language is a fabric that changes from one week to another, adding new strands and dropping old ones, and even word freaks fight over what is allowable, often reaching their decision on a wholly subjective basis such as taste ("notables" is sleazy). Which still leaves the question of who our tastemakers are. The question was confronted by the editors of a brand-new dictionary, The American Heritage Dictionary, at the outset of their task in the mid-1960s. They assembled a "Usage Panel" to help them appraise the new words and dubious constructions that had come knocking at the door. Which ones should be ushered in, which thrown out on their ear? The panel consisted of 104 men and women—mostly writers, poets, editors and teachers—who were known for caring about the language and trying to use it well. I was a member of the panel, and over the next few years I kept getting questionnaires. Would I accept "finalize" and "escalate"? How did I feel about "It's me"? Would I allow "like" to be used as a conjunction—like so many people do? How about "mighty," as in "mighty fine"? We were told that in the dictionary our opinions would be tabulated in a separate "Usage Note," so that readers could see how we voted. The questionnaire also left room for any comments we might feel impelled to make—a chance that the panelists seized avidly, as we found when the dictionary was published and our comments were released to the press. Passions ran high. "Good God, no! Never!" cried Barbara W. Tuchman, asked about the verb "to author." Scholarship hath no fury like that of a language purist faced with sludge, and I shared Tuchman's vow that "author" should never be authorized, just as I agreed with Lewis
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Page 7 and 8: On Writing Well cssao THE CLASSIC G
Page 9 and 10: C O N T E N T S osso INTRODUCTION 1
Page 11 and 12: INTRODUCTION CSSQ When I first wrot
Page 13 and 14: INTRODUCTION xi writers worse. Good
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Page 22 and 23: 8 ON WRITING WELL struction that le
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Page 26 and 27: 12 ON WRITING WELL Faced with such
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Page 32 and 33: QSSSO Style So much for early warni
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Page 36 and 37: 22 ON WRITING WELL I realize that t
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Page 63 and 64: 8 CSS30 Unity You learn to write by
Page 65 and 66: Unity 51 Such fatal mixtures are co
Page 67 and 68: Unity 53 When your zest begins to e
Page 69 and 70: csso The Lead and the Ending The mo
Page 71 and 72: The Lead and the Ending 57 I've oft
Page 73 and 74: The Lead and the Ending 59 One reas
Page 75 and 76: The Lead and the Ending 61 warehous
Page 77 and 78: The Lead and the Ending 63 general
Page 79 and 80: The Lead and the Ending 65 (lia and
Page 81 and 82: The Lead and the Ending 67 Somethin
Page 83 and 84: Bits & Pieces 69 sive-voice writers
Page 85 and 86: Bits & Pieces 71 tences become long
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Page 89 and 90: Bits & Pieces 75 go." Look for all
Page 91 and 92: Bits & Pieces 77 The common reactio
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Page 95 and 96: Bits & Pieces 81 of thought. Compar
Page 97 and 98: Bits & Pieces 83 This still leaves
Page 99 and 100: Bits & Pieces 85 eral different way
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Bits & Pieces 89 It's no longer nec
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Bits & Pieces 91 know that about ho
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P A R T I I I OBSO Forms
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96 ON WRITING WELL midst, and none
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1 2 CSSO Writing About People The I
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104 ON WRITING WELL roommate. With
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108 ON WRITING WELL used words and
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1 3 -esee- Writing About Places The
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132 ON WRITING WELL recalled that u
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134 ON WRITING WELL want to see pop
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138 ON WRITING WELL My father loved
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140 ON WRITING WELL Row overlooking
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146 ON WRITING WELL tors on adulter
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1 5 OSSO Science and Technology Tak
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150 ON WRITING WELL ing it up—but
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164 ON WRITING WELL Even a child kn
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1 6 csso Business Writing Writing i
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168 ON WRITING WELL First notice ho
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1 8 CRSSD Writing About the Arts Cr
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196 ON WRITING WELL Probably only t
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200 ON WRITING WELL wigs, unorthodo
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1 9 csso Humor Humor is the secret
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PART IV Og&O Attitudes
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248 ON WRITING WELL Also remember t
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250 ON WRITING WELL machine that sa
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252 ON WRITING WELL much as you see
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254 ON WRITING WELL WOODPECKER, APR
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256 ON WRITING WELL failure—aren'
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258 ON WRITING WELL write. She said
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260 ON WRITING WELL room. A man wou
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262 ON WRITING WELL larger part of
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264 ON WRITING WELL Writing is rela
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268 ON WRITING WELL Gordon Laing in
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274 ON WRITING WELL always feel tha
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276 ON WRITING WELL acter. As a tee
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278 ON WRITING WELL knew nothing ab
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280 ON WRITING WELL within a hundre
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282 ON WRITING WELL happened to fin
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284 ON WRITING WELL When you get su
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24 -esse- Write as Well as You Can
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288 ON WRITING WELL erosity and wis
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290 ON WRITING WELL submit an artic
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292 ON WRITING WELL repeated, and h
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294 ON WRITING WELL moving in grace
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296 SOURCES 66 "Coolidge," by H. L.
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298 SOURCES 188-90 Confessions of a
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I N D E X osao Aciman, André, 136
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Index 303 Eisenhower, Dwight, 239 E
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Index 305 Lin, Maya, 130 Lincoln, A
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Index 307 Satire, 209 Saturday Even
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