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44 ON WRITING WELL Meanwhile the battle continues. In 1980 the Usage Panel was reconstituted, and today I still receive ballots soliciting my opinion on new locutions: verbs like "definitize" ("Congress definitized a proposal"), nouns like "affordables," colloquialisms like "the bottom line" and strays like "into" ("He's into backgammon and she's into jogging"). It no longer takes a panel of experts to notice that jargon is flooding our daily life and language. President Carter signed an executive order directing that federal regulations be written "simply and clearly." President Clinton's attorney general, Janet Reno, urged the nation s lawyers to replace "a lot of legalese" with "small, old words that all people understand"—words like "right" and "wrong" and "justice." Corporations have hired consultants to make their prose less opaque, and even the insurance industry is trying to rewrite its policies to tell us in less disastrous English what redress will be ours when disaster strikes. Whether these efforts will do much good I wouldn't want to bet. Still, there's comfort in the sight of so many watchdogs standing Canute-like on the beach, trying to hold back the tide. That's where all careful writers ought to be—looking at every new piece of flotsam that washes up and asking "Do we need it?" I remember the first time somebody asked me, "How does that impact you?" I always thought "impact" was a noun, except in dentistry. Then I began to meet "de-impact," usually in connection with programs to de-impact the effects of some adversity. Nouns now turn overnight into verbs. We target goals and we access facts. Train conductors announce that the train won't platform. A sign on an airport door tells me that the door is alarmed. Companies are downsizing. It's part of an ongoing effort to grow the business. "Ongoing" is a jargon word whose main use is to raise morale. We face our daily job with more zest if the boss tells us it's an ongoing project; we give more willingly to institutions if they have targeted our
Usage 45 funds for ongoing needs. Otherwise we might fall prey to disincentivization. I could go on; I have enough examples to fill a book, but it's not a book I would want anyone to read. We're still left with the question: What is good usage? One helpful approach is to try to separate usage from jargon. I would say, for example, that "prioritize" is jargon—a pompous new verb that sounds more important than "rank"— and that "bottom line" is usage, a metaphor borrowed from the world of bookkeeping that conveys an image we can picture. As every businessman knows, the bottom line is the one that matters. If someone says, "The bottom line is that we just can't work together," we know what he means. I don't much like the phrase, but the bottom line is that it's here to stay. New usages also arrive with new political events. Just as Vietnam gave us "escalate," Watergate gave us a whole lexicon of words connoting obstruction and deceit, including "stonewall," "deep-six," "launder," "enemies list" and other "gate"-suffix scandals ("Irangate"). It's a fitting irony that under Richard Nixon "launder" became a dirty word. Today when we hear that someone laundered his funds to hide the origin of the money and the route it took, the word has a precise meaning. It's short, it's vivid, and we need it. I accept "launder" and "stonewall"; I don't accept "prioritize" and "disincentive." I would suggest a similar guideline for separating good English from technical English. It's the difference between, say, "printout" and "input." A printout is a specific object that a computer emits. Before the advent of computers it wasn't needed; now it is. But it has stayed where it belongs. Not so with "input," which was coined to describe the information that's fed to a computer. Our input is sought on every subject, from diets to philosophical discourse ("I'd like your input on whether God really exists"). I don't want to give somebody my input and get his feed-
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On Writing Well
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
Page 15: P A R T I -esee- Principles
Page 18 and 19: 4 ON WRITING WELL Absolutely not, h
Page 20 and 21: 6 ON WRITING WELL of gimmicks to "p
Page 22 and 23: 8 ON WRITING WELL struction that le
Page 24 and 25: 10 ON WRITING WELL is too dumb or t
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
Page 38 and 39: 24 ON WRITING WELL aging boxers don
Page 40 and 41: 26 ON WRITING WELL tion or sleep. N
Page 42 and 43: 28 ON WRITING WELL who fill the air
Page 44 and 45: 30 ON WRITING WELL religion and the
Page 46 and 47: 32 ON WRITING WELL and it allows fo
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Page 52 and 53: CSSSO Usage All this talk about goo
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Page 56 and 57: 42 ON WRITING WELL Just where Webst
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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
Page 87 and 88: Bits & Pieces 73 pistol might be lo
Page 89 and 90: Bits & Pieces 75 go." Look for all
Page 91 and 92: Bits & Pieces 77 The common reactio
Page 93 and 94: Bits & Pieces 79 who are so busy th
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
Page 101 and 102: Bits & Pieces 87 which sick people
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Page 107: P A R T I I I OBSO Forms
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96 ON WRITING WELL midst, and none
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98 ON WRITING WELL Magazines were s
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1 2 CSSO Writing About People The I
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102 ON WRITING WELL building turned
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104 ON WRITING WELL roommate. With
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106 ON WRITING WELL Obviously the t
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108 ON WRITING WELL used words and
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110 ON WRITING WELL call the person
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112 ON WRITING WELL revelation by J
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114 ON WRITING WELL Now, nobody thi
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1 3 -esee- Writing About Places The
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118 ON WRITING WELL rency. Half the
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120 ON WRITING WELL Bernardino out
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122 ON WRITING WELL American spore.
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124 ON WRITING WELL hood of the wri
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126 ON WRITING WELL to 110 degrees
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128 ON WRITING WELL with a hawk tha
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130 ON WRITING WELL Nine of my site
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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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136 ON WRITING WELL to the roots of
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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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142 ON WRITING WELL chagrin was acc
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144 ON WRITING WELL Johnson, who gr
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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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152 ON WRITING WELL Good. I could h
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154 ON WRITING WELL sleeping, for e
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156 ON WRITING WELL The nautilus ha
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158 ON WRITING WELL really belt it
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160 ON WRITING WELL constant relati
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162 ON WRITING WELL Constructed lik
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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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170 ON WRITING WELL During this yea
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172 ON WRITING WELL edly. Whenever
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174 ON WRITING WELL needs. It began
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176 ON WRITING WELL I learned about
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178 ON WRITING WELL acquiesce in th
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180 ON WRITING WELL any pig farmer
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182 ON WRITING WELL What ever becam
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184 ON WRITING WELL by, a loner. It
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186 ON WRITING WELL lete's psychic
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188 ON WRITING WELL moment is ripe
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190 ON WRITING WELL making the driv
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192 ON WRITING WELL little League,
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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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198 ON WRITING WELL a play, don't j
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200 ON WRITING WELL wigs, unorthodo
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202 ON WRITING WELL given back to u
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204 ON WRITING WELL What must be sa
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206 ON WRITING WELL shall wear the
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1 9 csso Humor Humor is the secret
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210 ON WRITING WELL use to disguise
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212 ON WRITING WELL important, or f
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214 ON WRITING WELL heart, the home
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216 ON WRITING WELL Ade was a repor
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218 ON WRITING WELL medium—dogger
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220 ON WRITING WELL savoring his st
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222 ON WRITING WELL Singer s lethal
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224 ON WRITING WELL sion, said, "We
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226 ON WRITING WELL does it flirt w
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228 ON WRITING WELL said I would te
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PART IV Og&O Attitudes
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234 ON WRITING WELL There is a kind
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236 ON WRITING WELL meet it. A woma
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238 ON WRITING WELL will not only s
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240 ON WRITING WELL obsession with
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242 ON WRITING WELL thousand years
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244 ON WRITING WELL with the men an
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246 ON WRITING WELL ful. I'm often
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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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266 ON WRITING WELL from one senten
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268 ON WRITING WELL Gordon Laing in
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270 ON WRITING WELL serving quotes
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272 ON WRITING WELL a certain way a
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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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