Let’s keep our writing simple, precise, cogent and clear

We received some delicious entries from readers for our discussion of words that drive us to a dictionary. But first, here are some jabs to the eye and ear that keep coming at us from so-called professional writers:

Now, those readers’ responses. From Rochelle Eastman of Savage, a retired postmaster:

“Sometimes I find joy just in the sound of new words or the precision of their definitions. I had to laugh. You made me look up ‘mensch.’ I’ve had it wrong for years. From inference, and just the sound, I thought being a mensch was a bad thing! Now I know it means a very good person.”

Rochelle may have been thinking of Grinch.

A retired Eden Prairie accountant listed words he’s had to look up: aggrandize, besmirch, inveigh, quixotic, fraught, dispirited, irresolute, didactic and pedantic. I offered a friendly challenge to use them all in one sentence. He wrote:

“The irresolute lad was dispirited and fraught because his teacher inveighed (and even besmirched him in class) against his quixotic attempts to appear didactic, when in reality he was merely pedantic and self-aggrandizing.”

How refreshing! A man who spent his career dealing with numbers had so much fun playing with words.

Steve Bjelke, a retired chemist in New Brighton, wrote:

“You remind me of the grandmother who had some fancy needlework that read ‘Eschew obfuscation.’ In junior high at the time, none of us knew what it meant, so we looked it up. We laughed out loud once we found out. Having to do that assured me I would never forget it!”

To “eschew obfuscation” means never to mislead people. Instead, keep our writing simple, precise, cogent and clear.

Gary Gilson can be reached through www.writebetterwithgary.com.