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    Prospective: The Penguin Guide To Plain English

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    Ilias
    This document provides examples of words that are often misused or overused in plain English writing. It analyzes words like "prospective", "proverbial", and "scenario" and suggests more appropriate replacements. For each word, it examines how the original meaning has been distorted or diluted over time by common but incorrect usage. The document advocates for using language with precision and avoiding pretentious or meaningless applications of words just because they have become fashionable.

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    Prospective: The Penguin Guide To Plain English

    Uploaded by

    Ilias
    52 views1 page
    This document provides examples of words that are often misused or overused in plain English writing. It analyzes words like "prospective", "proverbial", and "scenario" and suggests more appropriate replacements. For each word, it examines how the original meaning has been distorted or diluted over time by common but incorrect usage. The document advocates for using language with precision and avoiding pretentious or meaningless applications of words just because they have become fashionable.

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    This document provides examples of words that are often misused or overused in plain English writing. It analyzes words like "prospective", "proverbial", and "scenario" and suggests more appropriate replacements. For each word, it examines how the original meaning has been distorted or diluted over time by common but incorrect usage. The document advocates for using language with precision and avoiding pretentious or meaningless applications of words just because they have become fashionable.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    52 views1 page

    Prospective: The Penguin Guide To Plain English

    Uploaded by

    Ilias
    This document provides examples of words that are often misused or overused in plain English writing. It analyzes words like "prospective", "proverbial", and "scenario" and suggests more appropriate replacements. For each word, it examines how the original meaning has been distorted or diluted over time by common but incorrect usage. The document advocates for using language with precision and avoiding pretentious or meaningless applications of words just because they have become fashionable.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 1

    The Penguin Guide to Plain English

    Here the sense o f appropriateness w hich the w ord should convey is


    absent. There is no issue o f propriety here. The w ord could be replaced
    by carefully or keenly, or, better still, could be omitted.
    prospective
    We find a boarding school advising prospective parents to get in touch
    w ith the school secretary. But a prospective parent is either a pregnant
    w om an or the father o f her child. The w ord is out o f place here.
    The message is meant, not for prospective parents, but for prospective
    customers.
    proverbial
    There is a point in the decay o f a w o rd s meaning at w hich the question
    arises w hether the w ord is w orth using at all. Does it add anything?
    She was the warmest, sweetest person you could ever meet, the proverbial
    prostitute with the heart of gold.
    N ow although there is no well-known proverb about a prostitute, we
    recognize that the w ord here serves the purpose of conjuring up a certain
    stereotype exploited in literature. But w hat is the result w hen the w ord
    proverbial is dragged further from any anchorage?
    You could have heard the proverbial pin drop as Kilbaha entered the arena
    for the jump-ofF.
    It requires no great mastery of the English language to be familiar w ith
    the expression You could hear a pin drop. Not to be able to use it
    w ithout annotating it as though attention needed to be drawn to its
    hallowed position in our linguistic tradition is surely pretentious. It is
    like talking of the thin end of the proverbial w edge or barking up the
    proverbial tree.
    scenario
    The scenario is basically the plot of a stage play or film. The first person
    to use the w ord outside its theatrical context showed some im agination
    to inspired effect. The usage became fashionable. Over-use has now
    diluted its significance. It is done to death.
    Jane revels in major contracts, and starting from scratch is her ideal scenario.
    The w ord gets applied to any sequence o f events. We even hear Getting

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