Stop that FLABBY, GAS-BAG ENGLISH

in #steemiteducation6 years ago

Nothing, perhaps, is more characteristic of the flabbier kind of journalese than certain uses of while,
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WHILE = at the same time as:

during the same time that.



"He scored 20 points while his team member scored 18."


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No!

Correct that nonsense by putting and in place of while.

Other correctives of sentences that have misapplied 'whiles' are:

Although he promised not to do it, he did.

While he promised not to do it, he did.

(If, however, he did the deed while he was promising, then the sense is right for the latter.)

If you train your ear, tongue and eye to good English your judgment will soon sharpen so that you are able to detect a poor thinker by his trashy English, and neither his expensive clothes nor his high position will turn you from correct judgment.

Here are examples of silly expressions that are frequent today. When these expressions were first used freshness gave some of them vitality, but now that they are stale, their combination of unoriginality and prolixity is doubly absurd. Except in rare contexts they are used nowadays by gas-bags who wish to sound important.

You may say, "But I've heard all those many times from people in high positions - even over radio and television!"

The answer is: See that you don't use such rubbish!


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