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{ Category Archives } The Value of Imprecision in Business Writing

Essay on value and use of imprecise terms in business writing

Thoughts on “Business Writing”

Zinsser makes his point comparing George Orwell’s version of Ecclesiastes with the Bible’s version, but having worked as a technical writer a number of years, I am certain that  Orwell’s version would get the OK from higher-ups, and the Bible’s version would not. If a business writer turned in something like the Biblical version, he […]

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2011 02 08 Pamela Livingston Writing for the Web Comments (2)

Thoughts on “Writing About Places”

Zinsser says that writing about places — “beautiful, historically significant places that tourists spend time and money to visit” — is “very hard.” He says that written descriptions of such places are often “just plain terrible” because they rely on syrupy, subjective language and “groaning platitudes.” The descriptions are terrible because they are trite. If […]

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2011 02 08 Pamela Livingston Writing for the Web Comments (1)