Sterling Terrell

recovering economist

The Best Words Are Often This

The Best Words Are Often This

Maybe the best words are the ones we think of first?

I think, this feels something like when you see people try too hard.

See, face-to-face, most can tell when people are being natural and when people are faking it.

Don’t fake it when you write. It will probably show.

The best words are often the simplest.

The best chapters are often the shortest.

And the best stories are often the most clear.

If you are searching a thesaurus to use a word you have never heard of, you are probably not thinking about it quite right.

Remember that the basic rule of vocabulary is use the first word that comes to your mind, if it is appropriate and colorful. If you hesitate and cogitate, you will come up with another word—of course you will, there’s always another word—but it probably won’t be as good as your first one, or as close to what you really mean.

-Stephen King, On Writing

The Joy Of New Words

The Joy Of New Words

Thinking back, I can remember three favorite new words that I learned, I think, during college.

What were they?

Bifurcation – dividing something into parts
Pernicious – harming in a gradual way
Post hoc ergo propter hoc – Latin for – “after, therefore, because of”

What pleasure I took in saying:

“The argument caused a bifurcation in their party.”
Instead of: “The argument caused a split in their party.”

“Afterward, the policy had a pernicious effect on the economy.”
Instead of: “Afterward, the policy had a bad effect on the economy.”

And what ungracious amusement and pride I took in simply saying:

Post hoc ergo propter hoc.

…after listening to a bad argument.

And then, with most people, I still had the added joy of explaining what it meant – and how they were using bad logic.

I was gracious and wonderful, I know.

I’m sorry.

Words are immensely seductive, in ways we don’t often recognize. Their power can perhaps most clearly be seen in young children, who become fascinated by new words and look for every possible opportunity to use them. Now, in fact, adults are no different in this respect: we just have learned to do a better job than our younger counterparts of obscuring our fascination, of pretending that a phrase brand new to us has been part of our word hoard forever. Oh, this old thing? But we turn the shiny new phrases over and over in our minds, as a miser fondles the coins in his pockets.

-Alan Jacobs, How To Think

Sterling Terrell