This is About How To Learn How To Write.
A lot of times I hear people say, "you used that word twice." Like it's a rule. They say it to other people, mind you! Or it's said online, in a typing way. Now I want to be clear. Nobody says that to me. Because it's clear I already know about how to write. So nobody much presumes to school me, which is fair.
So anyhow, they say it like a rule: "You used that word twice." Which, the unspoken implication there would be: Don't.
Now I understand the value of a telling a kid a rule that, who can't write none and whose vocabulary maybe needs building up. It's the sort of rule that comes accompanied by a complementary thesaurus: "Here, try this."
"Complimentary" also would work there. Even though no, they are not synonymous. Example, a Chinese restaurant I go to has a "complementary" egg roll. They charge you for it, but it really goes well with the meal. If you complain about it, then their English is better than yours is.
Anyway, the rule. The rule as commonly expressed is: "you used that word twice."
I'm all for it, in terms of getting someone used to using a wider range of words. But the point of the rule is misunderstood. It's not so much to not use the same word twice. It's that there may be many ways to say a thing, and you don't want to use different words each time, so much as you want to use the right word each time. Now it stands to reason that you can't use the right word each time unless you know all the candidates. You have to be acquainted with them pretty well, in order to judge between. Only one word is going to be the right word. The next-closest-to-right word is going to strike the tuned ear a little sharp or a little flat, as Twain observed in his celebrated critical garroting of James Fenimore Cooper.
But as far the right word goes: if you know it, use it. Every damn time. Don't settle for an off-right word just for the sake of variety, when you know what the right word is. If you have to say it three times in a paragraph, well if that has to happen, it's a damn sight better to use the exact right word each damn time rather than look like you're trying to dance around it like a fool.
Anyhow. As you can see my prose style is very much out-of-whack at the moment, from working at the latest installment of Some say a stranger came, dealing death before the end...
Look for that on Friday and in the meantime: Learn How To Write!
10 comments:
The thing is do you use the precise word first and the sort of word second, or do you go sort of first and precise second?
I don't like to use the same word twice, or two times even; like doubling up or repeating.
Limom, don't let them win! The only reason you don't like using the right word twice - okay, I'm guessing here. Let me speak for myself, instead: the only reason I had an aversion to using the same word twice was because bad writers drilled it into me as a rule when I was a kid.
If that happened to you too, don't let them win. Don't use the sort-of right word at all. They used to say: "If you keep using the same word, people will think you don't know any others." Well I say: we are writers, now - grown into the fullness of our powers. We can't be that insecure anymore!
There's no surer sign of a weak writer than when you see the thesaurus dance of kicking, high-stepping synonyms trading partners with a meaning that ought to be singular, decisive, precise. Add words where the addition clarifies, certainly! But do not change out words just for the sake of vocabulary strutting. Use the most-right word, every dang time!
It's true, there may be times when any of several words can be used. Yet even there, don't vary solely for the sake of variety. Good writers are decisive. Good writing has force and clarity. To choose variety at the expense of strong, precise meaning just gives an impression of timidity or indecision.
When I wrote for a college newspaper - some of the worst writing I've ever done, BTW - I had editor who didn't want me to use the same word twice. Even if I was trying to build a clear argument and use consistent, defined terms. I had enough trouble with that, without his "help" throwing in a bunch of almost but not quite synonyms. He called it "variations on a theme."
I also had a h.s. English teacher who would strike out your one adjective and replace it with two of his own. You put "strong" and he'd replace it with "hulking and muscle-bound."
To paraphrase myself from before: to choose variety at the expense of hulking and muscle-bound, precise meaning just gives an impression of timidity or indecision.
For the most part I agree, yet it's difficult to embellish without straying.
English is great because it is so precise yet ambiguous!
I mean you can stretch definitions a bit even if it means going archaic or using slang.
I dislike word repetition for it just doesn't read well, at least for me.
Well, that's a good point - you do have to write for your own personal taste, after all! Some find that repetition can create a powerful emphasis, and drive meaning home. Others may find that saying the same thing different ways can be an effective rhetorical device.
In this post and in these comments, I'm not arguing against anyone's style per se. I am just saying that as a rule, the bias against using the same word twice is a bad rule.
As a stylistic choice, it may be fine and dandy depending on the case!
"Some find that repetition can create a powerful emphasis"
I see what you did there.
Nice one!.
Nice one!.
No, no, no! I'm just having a bit of trouble with the commenting today. That's my 3rd or 4th double-post!
I keep deleting them. Damnable nuisance.
Oh, I see. I still like how it was in keeping with the theme, even if it was unintentional :-)
That's true. I could have left it up, but I get so serious in comments when I'm talking about English!
It's a passion of mine.
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