Good Grief!

I knew it was a bad idea to commit to a specific day of the week for grammar posts. This week’s Grammar Wednesday will have to be on Thursday or Friday. If things don’t slow down, I may even resort to a grammar-related Friday Top 5. In the meantime, here’s another Strunk and White rule to ponder. Excerpted from reminder six—do not overwrite—which can be found on page 72 of The Elements of Style, fourth edition:

When writing with a computer, you must guard against wordiness. The click and flow of a word processor can be seductive, and you may find yourself adding a few unnecessary words or even a whole passage just to experience the pleasure of running your fingers over the keyboard and watching your words appear on the screen. It is always a good idea to reread your writing later and ruthlessly delete the excess.

So true—I often succumb to the lure of the keyboard. Bloggers are especially susceptible to this problem because they tend to post quickly and focus on fresh content rather than revisions of previous entries.