Blog

Here are a few more fine distinctions from the 1922 pamphlet S.O.S. Slips of Speech by Frank H. Vizetelly, Litt.D., L.L.D. 1. Hypercritical/Hypocritical Hypercritical means overly or excessively critical. Hypocritical signifies deceptive, sham, for hypocrisy is false pretense 2. Idea/Opinion Idea implies something undetermined in the mind; Opinion is formed after deduction or reflection and […]

Last week I gave a few examples of words and distinctions made clear in a pamphlet from 1922 titled S.O.S.: Slips of Speech. Here are a few more excerpts. Statements in parentheses are mine. Divide Up As divide means to “separate into pieces,” “cut asunder,” “apportion,” or “distribute in shares,”, up is redundant and absurd.

I recently came across a pamphlet called Slips of Speech and How to Avoid Them. It was published in 1922 and written by Frank H. Vizetelly, Litt.D, LLD, Managing Editor of the Funk and Wagnalls New Standard Dictionary and its Abridgements. This fading, dog-eared publication is about 6 inches long and 4 inches wide. It

Those of you who have participated in my business writing trainings know that I encourage writing whose average sentence length is between 10 and 17 words. I emphasize the word “average” because some sentences might be longer than 17 and some might be shorter than 10 in order to maintain an interesting rhythm to the

Noted Beverly Hills attorney Robert W. Hirsh recently brought to my attention a case of the importance of using words exactly. A case he is trying hinges on the meaning of the words between and among. As most of you might know, between refers only to situations when two options exist; if there are more