Book Presentation on Usage and Abusage and Mind the Gaffe

Book Presentation

Usage and Abusage and Mind the Gaffe

05/02/2023 2Book Presentation on Usage and Abusage and Mind the Gaffe by Suyog Ketkar

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Agenda• Ambiguity• Disguised conjunctions• Tautology• Vogue words• What’s next?

Book Presentation on Usage and Abusage and Mind the Gaffe by Suyog Ketkar

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Let’s eat Grandma!


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Ambiguity• Woolliness• Obscurity• Punctuation• Catachresis


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Woolliness


Woolly. Lacking in definiteness or incisiveness; ‘muzzy’; confused and hazy.

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Obscurity


“Without distinction of idea, there cannot be distinction of speech – or style”- Partridge

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Punctuation


“Great care ought to be had in writing, for the due observation of points: for, the neglect thereof will prevent the sense.” (Richard Hodges, 1644)

Let’s eat, Grandma!

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Catachresis


A word misused. It is fault in writing; an improper use of words; etymologically, ‘contrary to usage-ness’.

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Example

Source: My Facebook account


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Example

Source: www.myindiapictures.com


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Example



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Example



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Ambiguity?

The truth is:

“We see what we want to see.We understand what we want to understand.”


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Tautology


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Disguised Conjunctions• “According to…” instead of “As per…”

• “In reference to” instead of “Referring to…”

• “… for obtaining” instead of “to obtain…”


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Example

“As per, ‘in accordance with’, is such a horrible commercialese that even merchant princes are less than riotously happy when their secretaries wish it on them.”

– Partridge


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Example


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Example


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Example

Source: www.csl.sri.com


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Tautology


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Tautology


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Tautology


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Example


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Example


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Example


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Tautology

Do you want me to repeat that again for you?Are you serious?


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Vogue WordsVogue word is a fashionable word or phrase.Use words, such as the following with caution:• Breakthrough, for a major advancement or discovery• Clone, for identical copy (!)• Deploy, for ‘to use; place’. One deploys forces or arguments• Dimension, for ‘aspect; facet’• Escalate (both transitive and intransitive), for ‘rise; expand’• Guidelines, for ‘principles; criteria guiding action’• input, for anything contributed to a system• Subjective, for ‘biased’• Target, for ‘goal; objective’. It is absurdly used in ‘to exceed one’s target’,

since the idea of a target is to hit it.


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Example


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What’s Next?


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What’s Next?• Follow KISS• 6Cs: Clarity, Correctness, Comprehensiveness, Cohesiveness, Conciseness,

Consistency (One C was added during the standards’ meeting for process of editing)

• Write for business-users’


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What’s Next?

“Like persons, words cannot always be taken for granted.”- Partridge


Tanjooberrymutts!

Suyog Ketkar

Book Presentation on Usage and Abusage and Mind the Gaffe

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Transcript of Book Presentation on Usage and Abusage and Mind the Gaffe