This compilation of overused words and phrases is the ultimate tool for the writer who seeks to weed out common, tired language and replace it with concise writing.

The Dimwit's Dictionary: 5,000 Overused Words and Phrases and Alternatives to Them

Reference

Robert Hartwell Fiske

Dictionaries & Thesauruses

Marion Street Press, Inc.

This is a Vocabula Book. 101 Wordy Phrases — A Vocabula 101 Series Handbook Vocabula 101 Series Handbooks are slim volumes replete with sound advice on how to use the English language well. A distillation of Fiske's The Dictionary of Concise Writing, this handy reference includes some ludicrous, though much used, examples of wordiness. Sentence examples illustrate how wordy phrases can be made more concise. 101 Wordy Phrases encourages you to speak and write more concisely and clearly. Think critically: read a Vocabula Book. From the Introduction: Inadequate though they may be, words distinguish us from all other living things. Only we humans can reflect on the past and plan for the future; it is language that allows us to do so. Indeed, our worth is partly in our words. Effective use of language — clear writing and speaking — is a measure of our humanness. When they do their work best, words help people communicate; they promote understanding between people. And this, being well understood, is precisely the goal we should all aspire to when writing and speaking. As obvious as this seems, it is not a goal we commonly achieve. Words often ill serve their purpose. When they do their work badly, words militate against us. Poor grammar, sloppy syntax, abused words, misspelled words, and other infelicities of style impede communication and advance only misunderstanding. But there is another, perhaps less well-known, obstacle to effective communication: too many words. We often believe that many words are better than few. Perhaps we imagine that the more we say, the more we know or the more others will think we know, or that the more obscure our writing is, the more profound our thoughts are. Seldom, of course, is this so. Wordiness is arguably the biggest obstacle to clear writing and speaking. But it is also more than that. • Wordiness is an obstacle to success. Almost all professional people know that success in business partly depends on good communications skills, on writing and speaking clearly and persuasively. Businesspeople who cannot express themselves well are often at a disadvantage in the corporate world. • Wordiness is an obstacle to companionship. Few of us enjoy being with someone who speaks incessantly or incoherently. Wordiness in others may make us impatient; it may annoy us, and we may think it rude. Worse than that, when we have difficulty understanding someone, sooner or later we may not care what it is that he tries to convey. We lose interest in what a person says and, ultimately, in who a person is. • Wordiness is an obstacle to self-knowledge. A superfluity of words conceals more than it reveals. We need time to be silent and still, time to reflect on the past and think about the future; without it, no one is knowable. Wordiness is an obstacle to these goals and others. Whatever your profession, whatever your personality, wordiness is a condition for which we all should seek a cure.

101 Wordy Phrases (Vocabula 101 Series Handbooks)

Vocabula Books

This is a Vocabula Book. 101 Foolish Phrases — A Vocabula 101 Series Handbook Vocabula 101 Series Handbooks are slim volumes replete with sound advice on how to use the English language well. A distillation of Fiske's The Dimwit's Dictionary, this handy reference includes some of the most foolish phrases we speak and write. Incisive, sometimes acerbic, commentary accompanies each entry. 101 Foolish Phrases encourages you to speak and write more carefully and thoughtfully. Think critically: read a Vocabula Book. From the Introduction: Whereas a witticism is a clever remark or phrase — indeed, the height of expression — a "dimwitticism" is the converse; it is a commonplace remark or phrase. Dimwitticisms are worn-out words and phrases; they are expressions that dull our reason and dim our insight, formulas that we rely on when we are too lazy to express what we think or even to discover how we feel. The more we use them, the more we conform — in thought and feeling — to everyone else who uses them. Dimwitticisms give rise to ineloquence, and it is precisely this that marks so much of our speech and writing. Whatever the occasion, whether celebratory or funereal, quotidian or uncommon, people speak and write the same dimwitted words and phrases. No wonder so many of us feel barren or inconsolable: there are few words that inspire us, few words that move us, few words that thrill or overwhelm us. Persuasion has lost much of its sway, conviction, much of its claim. People who rely on dimwitticisms like these appear to express themselves more fluently and articulately than those few who do not. But this is a sham articulateness, for without the use of these foolish phrases, most people would stammer helplessly. Dimwitticisms are ubiquitous, and we cannot easily escape them. Perhaps none of us can express a thought without them. We learn them unknowingly; insidiously do they become part of our wording unless we recognize what they are and withstand their onslaught. Genuine articulateness is writing and speech that scarcely makes use of dimwitticisms, and it is achieved only with much effort. Certainly, it is the least effective speakers and writers who use the most dimwitticisms. A person’s ability to express himself well — compellingly, persuasively — is inversely proportional to the number of dimwitticisms he uses. A person who expresses himself with genuineness instead of in jargon, with feeling instead of in formulas is capable as few have been, as few are, and as few will be; this is a person to heed.

101 Foolish Phrases (Vocabula 101 Series Handbooks)

Words, Language & Grammar

This is a Vocabula Book. 101 Elegant Paragraphs --  A Vocabula 101 Series Handbook     Vocabula 101 Series Handbooks are slim volumes replete with sound advice on how to use the English language well.     Based on The Vocabula Review's "Elegant English" feature, this handy reference includes some prize examples of beautifully written, elegant English.     101 Elegant Paragraphs encourages you to speak and write with deliberation, style, even beauty.     Think critically: read a Vocabula Book.     From the Introduction:     We all know far too well how to write everyday English, but few of us know how to write elegant English --  English that is expressed with music as well as meaning, style as well as substance. The point of this collection is not to suggest that people should try to emulate these examples of elegant English but to show that the language can be written with grace and polish -- qualities that much contemporary writing is bereft of and could benefit from.     Read these examples of elegant English at your leisure, and from each you might glean some turn of phrase, some device of rhetoric, some clarity of expression, some novelty of thought that, in more contemporary writing, you seldom will have noticed. From these paragraphs you might indeed learn that language can be written with care and cleverness.     You need not study these paragraphs; simply read them. If you find any pleasure in having read them once, read them twice, over time, and you will absorb some of their music, some of their style. It is possible to learn to write well, or to learn to write better, from reading good writing.     Elegant English, as these paragraphs show, is exhilarating; it stirs our thoughts and feelings as ably as everyday English blurs them.

101 Elegant Paragraphs (Vocabula 101 Series Handbooks)

Silence, Language, &amp; Society: A guide to style and meaning, grace and compassion -- an episodic, aphoristic collection of Robert Hartwell Fiske's writing -- is a formulary for reclaiming our sense of self through the careful use of the English language. This is a book about words and language and thoughts, how they intermingle, and their relationship with silence and society. 
Along with the spate of mysteries, children's books, and romance novels, there is the occasional need for a book — even a small book — that does more than entertain. Silence, Language, &amp; Society challenges you; it encourages you to think and to question. 
This is a Vocabula Book. Most book publishers today are interested in and consider only narratives; they want stories that engross and entertain the readers, and that let them retire, however briefly, from the toil and tedium of their lives. 
Silence, Language, &amp; Society is episodic, and as such, encourages readers to pause between thoughts, and to think their own. Silence, Language, &amp; Society is as captivating as a mystery, as elementary as a children's story, as rousing as a romance novel. 
Silence, Language, &amp; Society is a tale, half told, of the dissolution of society as reflected in the dissolution of language.

Silence, Language, & Society: A guide to style and meaning, grace and compassion

The Grumbling Grammarian is back with a revised and expanded edition of The Dictionary of Disagreeable English. In this second edition, Robert Hartwell Fiske has added more language blunders, additional witty commentary, and a new feature that includes frequently asked questions about language.
Fiske rails against "laxicographers and ding-a-linguists" who, with their misguided thinking, actually promote the dissolution of the English language. He also illustrates why dictionaries don't always provide the correct meaning or usage of a word. With concise instruction and numerous examples of misused words, Fiske makes it easier than ever to learn from others' mistakes.

Dictionary of Disagreeable English, Deluxe Edition

Editor and Publisher of Vocabula Review

Literature & Fiction

Writers' Digest Books

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