Very Good Advice
Words and phrases to avoid, courtesy of Andrew Gelman:
- Note that
- Interestingly
- Obviously
- It is clear that
- It is interesting to note that
- very
- quite
- of course
- Notice that
Let me add “We see that.”
Comments
“Indeed,” and “indubitably” are still OK, then?
Phew. Clearly.
Posted by: Joel | May 28, 2008 12:13 PM
And when a person being interviewed says:
“That’s a very good question”
is it because s/he furnished it to the interviewer in advance of the interview? Or just sucking up to the latter?
Posted by: Shag from Brookline | May 29, 2008 07:47 AM
Anyone who puts limitations on the use of the English language for the sake of some constructed rules should be ignored. Terrible advice.
Posted by: Robert S. Porter | May 29, 2008 03:12 PM
Stupid if blindly applied, but a search of your document for these words/phrases at the editing stage is time well spent.
Posted by: PLW | May 30, 2008 09:50 AM
Read Orwell’s “Politics and the English Language”. Page for page, it’s easily the best writing instruction out there. It’s on topic, I swear.
Posted by: Dan | May 30, 2008 12:15 PM
William Zinsser: “On Writing Well.” Among other pearls: (paraphrasing) “with” is a perfectly good thing to word a sentence with.
Posted by: Jason MacDonald | May 30, 2008 11:46 PM
Note that Lee S. used ‘note that’ in the post below on ‘Early Admissions.’
Posted by: Christian | June 2, 2008 10:39 PM
Busted! And I’d do it again. Note that some of Andrew’s recommendations are better than others.
Posted by: Lee Sigelman | June 3, 2008 06:54 AM