Friday, August 12, 2005

Verbosity & Bombast

There are many cases of too many words spoiling the truth and below are some of them.

It is frequent to see PR firms use the following spiel when acknowledging customer feedback:
"We would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr Chan for his valuable feedback." (15 words)
Instead, why not use this?
"We thank Mr Chan for his feedback."
As a general rule, don't make someone read 10 words when five will convey the same meaning.

Here are more common examples:
because of the fact that - because
in the event that - if
each and every individual - each person
the vast majority of - most
the question as to whether - whether
an increasing number of - more

Here is an extreme example:
Aberration is the hallmark of Homo Sapiens while longanimous placability and condonation are the indicia of supermundane omniscience.
simply means:
To err is human; to forgive is divine.

KISS: Keep It Simple, Stoopid

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