Re: Redundancy & obscurity patrol

Subject: Re: Redundancy & obscurity patrol
From: Robert Plamondon <robert -at- PLAMONDON -dot- COM>
Date: Sun, 21 Jan 1996 10:12:35 -0800

When I'm editing, my red pen is used to delete the phrase "is used to."
By deleting these three words and making the verb active voice/present
tense, you can shake a lot of dullness out of other people's prose.
I don't think that I've ever seen first draft of a piece of marketing
literature that didn't say "Our product is used to do something" instead
of "Our product does something" in the first paragraph.

I think that most marketing product managers, if left to their own
devices, would have announced the attack on Pearl Harbor as:

"The Japanese Navy was used to attack Pearl Harbor today."


-- Robert


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