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Inside the Cover Book Review Review by Liz Scott
The Vocabula 101 Series Handbooks: 101 Wordy Phrases, 101 Foolish Phrases, 101 Elegant Paragraphs By Robert Hartwell Fiske Vocabula Books Writing-related
The Vocabula 101 series is a set of intriguing little books for writers. Robert Fiske is tired of ubiquitous bad English, yet moved by elegant writing. He shares both his love and his scorn in three slim volumes. Two of the three books aim to aid writers directly; the third seeks to inspire them. 101 Wordy Phrases is a simple, handy book containing 101 phrases that Fiske believes to be common offenders that propagate wordiness in writing. After each phrase, Fiske provides examples of its use, and examples of how to correct the offending sentences to drop the excessively wordy phrases. I recognized some of my own pet peeves and my own common failings in these phrases. All too often writers repeat themselves, add superfluous words, and end up creating long, convoluted sentences when concise ones would be both better and clearer. This would be a good book to have on hand during revisions-- if you search out a few of the wordy phrases and fix them, your writing will tighten up nicely. 101 Foolish Phrases is similar to 101 Wordy Phrases-- Fiske singles out his least favorite phrases and dissects them with a sure hand. But in Foolish Phrases, he often substitutes commentary for correction and sarcasm for explanation. This isn't all bad. As a ten-year veteran of corporate America, I found it hard not to giggle at his suggested synonyms for "team player," which included toady, sycophant, and bootlicker. But in Foolish Phrases, Fiske becomes a bit too enamored of his own opinions. His attempts at education too readily fall into condescension. No, I'm not the best read, most literary writer of the English language. But I dislike being referred to as a dimwit, a dullard, and an idiot by a book that purports to educate me in the art of elegant writing. Fiske declares in the introduction to 101 Elegant Paragraphs that he intends it as inspiration for writers. He would like more writers to read examples of great writing, and to take those examples and mimic or extrapolate them. I found the language in some of the selected paragraphs beautiful, and the subject matter relevant. The first paragraph, by Frederick Douglass, cuts to the bone of modern politics. But elegance is subjective. Apparently elegant writing almost never appears in fiction, nor does it exist in contemporary works of literature. I was sad to discover not one paragraph by Jane Austen, P.G. Wodehouse, or Tom Robbins. Instead, the list of authors read like the syllabus from a general ed college course. Too many of the paragraphs were so archaic, ostentatious, or desperately overwritten that by the time I reached the last sentence, I'd forgotten what the beginning was about. Perhaps the problem is my lack of wit, not the book's content. Then again, it may be that this book contains a surplus of paragraphs written by pompous men who were too fond of their own quills. Though the Vocabula series has some helpful material, it was difficult to get past the pretentious intellectualism and snotty put-downs to find its substance. There are plenty of writing guides available that are witty and useful, without talking down to their audience. CLICK HERE TO ORDER THE BOOKS.
Liz
Scott is a part-time freelance writer and full-time technical writer from the
San Francisco Bay area. Her life's dream is never again to begin a book with the
sentence "Insert the CD into the CD-ROM drive." |
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