Misused Words.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 955, 27 December 1933, Page 6

Misused Words.

I r EXERCISE that a correspondent set “Touchstone" yesterday of reducing a piece of high-flown language to simple terms recalls the story of the reporter who had many good qualities but could not write clearly. The editor finally took him in hand, saying, “Take this paragraph back and imagine that you have the stupidest man in the kingdom sitting in front of you. Then tell him in the simplest way what you have in the paragraph. Then write what you have told him/* The reporter followed his advice, and the result surprised him. “Capital,” said the editor. “ How did you manage this ? " “ Well, sir,” said the reporter, “ I did what you told me. I sat down at my desk and imagined you were sitting in front of me.” “John o’ London,” in telling this story, I says that it illustrates a fundamental fact about the art of communication. He attributes a great deal of the difficulty of writing to self-consciousness—conscious-ness of the effort to write rather than the reason for writing. This has been “ Touchstone’s ” experience. Men write clearly and vividly in letters to their friends', but ask them to write for a newspaper, and the result is appalling. TOUCHSTONE.