A hard-look story
December 9th 2008 11:59
Good writing is due 33 percent to skill, 33 percent to a good dictionary and 33 percent to a good thesaurus. Oh alright, if you are going to challenge me, I admit that I am selling the thesaurus short.
The point I want to make is that even language experts need these books.
I sat for many years on the subs desk of a broadsheet daily, surrounded by grizzled veterans of a million editorial decisions. They were expert spellers, of course; they could spot an i for e transposition three time zones away.
And yet, if you sat quietly in a corner and watched a busy subs desk hum its way through an evening’s work, you would see every sub-editor reach regularly for the dictionary. Why would this be?
The reason is that good writers and good sub-editors do not trust memory. They know that a spelling error immediately stamps the word ‘careless’ on a piece of writing. It is the equivalent of one bum key in an otherwise perfectly played piano sonata.
I have been an editor for 30 years. These days, as a writer, I probably refer to the dictionary more than once an hour.
I refer to the thesaurus even more often. Mark Twain said, “The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.” Near enough is not good enough. Anyone who is satisfied with near enough does not understand the difference between effective and ineffective writing.
While every good writer will refer regularly to a dictionary, there are excellent writers who do not need a thesaurus. They are the literary equivalent of musicians who write symphonies in their head. For the rest of us, a thesaurus is indispensable.
Personally, time and again I know I haven’t got the right word, and I have to hunt it down through page after page of synonyms. If I were a musician, I couldn’t compose a scale in my head.
image: www.antiquehelper.com
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