Comments on: Elegant Variation

By: FUCK MY ASS ALL THE TIME PLEASE

FUCK MY ASS ALL THE TIME PLEASE — Fri, 01 May 2009 00:05:40 +0000

Here is an example using a repetition of a word: i will permit myself to not drinking coffee everyday.

By: Bruno

Bruno — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 18:32:34 +0000

Repetition of words is not a “mistake” in scientific literature. Clarity is always to be sought when writing a technical paper, with elegant variation being an extra luxury.

By: Michael

Michael — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 12:42:25 +0000

Repetition of words within a sentence or paragraph is a bad idea when they refer to different things. For example: “The teacher gave the teacher a book” – they’re two different people, so using the same word for both is confusing.

By: Michael

Michael — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 14:18:40 +0000

When creative dialog tags are overused, they become “Tom Swifties.”
- “Turn down the heat,” he said warmly.
- “Close the shutters,” she said blindly.
- “Turn on the light,” he said brightly.

By: cmdweb

cmdweb — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 11:10:16 +0000

I must admit to having a bit of a ‘thing’ about this. I wasn’t taught it at school, it’s more of a personal preference. I think that repetiton of words reduces the overall readability and the readers resulting level of interest. Writing that uses a wider vocabulary always comes across as more professional to me.
Being involved in technical writing, this also creates conflict where you may be forced to use the same nomenclature or descriptive word over and over again; using a new word could confuse the user.