turbine

I often tell my students to throw out their thesauruses. The fancy sounding words they substitute for regular ones often have wide-ranging connotations, sometimes derived from something as simple as the word’s component phonemes.

I.

It might also be useful to advise them to throw out their dictionaries, periodic tables, and atlases. Geez. Especially those atlases.

I mean, what real cartographer uses an atlas?

Any country you have to hunt for in an atlas is the wrong country. There are no exceptions to this rule.

II.

Yes. Poor and beginning writers often abuse their thesaurus. And, yes. It’s useful to point out the anti-pattern of that abuse. And, yes, for any “rule” to be useful it has to be both reductive and audience-specific. But.

The deeper lessons I’d want to share involve 1) accepting that there’s no vaccine against having to suck your way toward sucking less; and 2) it’s rarely information’s fault.

To my reading, the tacit message of King’s (admittedly useful-for-absolute-beginners) “rule” is, in the longer term, not constructive for teaching either of those bigger lessons.

I like On Writing. I like Elements of Style. I like when people say decisive things.

But, I don’t particularly like out-of-context mandates on what and how people are allowed to write. Or, more saliently, what they’re allowed to learn. That’s ghastly.

III.

“Rules” that build confidence, word count, and expertise in young writers can be great. But, “Rules” that make curious laymen regard writing as the province of those scowling pharisees and sadducees who’ve memorized The Rules are inexcusable.

Sorry. I mean, “bad.”

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64 Notes/ Hide

  1. 749 reblogged this from merlin
  2. librariansoul reblogged this from cbowns and added:
    I don’t think this line of thinking is absurd. turbine certainly didn’t say “I advise everyone everywhere to give up on...
  3. cbowns reblogged this from merlin and added:
    … read more (Thank you, Merlin, for pointing...this line of thinking. Your argument...
  4. jacobsknabb reblogged this from merlin
  5. steampoweredmedia reblogged this from merlin and added:
    Read More I. Map makers should make maps. They shouldn’t copy them....final paragraph: The...
  6. donschaffner reblogged this from merlin and added:
    Read More Thanks as always for...words, but also thanks...43...
  7. poetrymidwest reblogged this from merlin and added:
    Read More Ok, Merlin—here’s the deal. Novice writes need rules. They need models. They need to be told what works
  8. whitneymcn reblogged this from merlin and added:
    Read More I had a professor who summed...up nicely: “your task is
  9. metropotamia reblogged this from merlin and added:
    Read More I’m with Merlin. Shift + F7...life. Lightening vs. Lightening bug. Etc.