Friday, September 15, 2006

best-dressed writers

For clear thinking and clear writing, first and foremost a writer must possess a wide vocabulary and have a mastery of it. For this purpose, reading -- painstaking, inquiring, careful reading -- is absolutely essential. We ought to possess 'changes' of vocabulary as we possess 'changes' of clothing.

-- B.L.K. Henderson, English for Advertising and Commerce 19 (1931).

(Ed. note: Not sure what this means for someone who wears jeans, flip-flops, and a sweatshirt pretty much every day; hopefully my vocabulary is at least that interesting.)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Emily, to be perfectly honest, I think it's more of a unconscious attempt at balance. Your writing is always clear, precise and formal, while your attire is correspondingly slovenly.

(Actually, I still don't believe that you could be slovenly.)