Lee’s Reviews > The Lexicographer's Dilemma: The Evolution of "Proper" English, from Shakespeare to South Park > Status Update
Lee
is on page 60 of 326
"The best way to write well, Swift insisted, is to think clearly and to be direct, because "the Faults" in English expression "are nine in ten owing to Affectation, and not to the Want of Understanding." The speakers who made a mess of the language did so because they were too concerned to show off "their Learning, their Oratory, or their Knowledge of the World.""
— Apr 11, 2024 01:39PM
Like flag
Lee’s Previous Updates
Lee
is on page 100 of 326
Dnf @ pg. 100... I might come back to it, but at this rate the library is going to hunt me down if I don't return their book
— Jun 21, 2024 10:10AM
Lee
is on page 86 of 326
"When doubters pointed out that the Académie Française, with its staff of forty of the nation's greatest scholars, took forty years to compile a similar dictionary, he replied with one of his best zingers: "This is the proportion. Let me see; forty times forty is sixteen hundred. As three to sixteen hundred, so is the proportion of an Englishman to a Frenchman.""
— Apr 12, 2024 01:05PM
Comments Showing 1-1 of 1 (1 new)
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
Lee
(new)
-
added it
Apr 11, 2024 01:43PM
So in other words, using big words to sound smart = poor writing. Exactly what I've always criticized academic works for. If you really know your topic, you should be able to make it accessible. Maybe not to high schoolers with no background knowledge, but at the very least to post secondary students studying in the same field.
reply
|
flag
