Article preview: Characteristics of bad writing
I’ve been far too sluggish in publishing new content here, so how about a preview of an upcoming article? My article about the gobbledygook that passes as business writing will be in the May issue of The Editorial Eye. Here’s a snippet that describes one characteristic of bad writing:
Abstraction—Using language that is abstract rather than concrete. It is usually riddled with passive voice and verbs and participles that have been converted to nouns by adding suffixes such as -tion, -sion, -ence, and –ment (for example, writing the establishment of rather than establishing). The Cornish writer Arthur Quiller-Couch described the abstract noun as “a vile thing… It wraps a man’s thoughts round like cotton wool.” (On the Art of Writing, 1943.)
What about you, dear reader? What do you think is the worst characteristic of a piece of poor writing?
Roy Jacobsen
Thanks to Scott M., the honorary copyeditor for WC&S, for pointing out a typo in the first paragraph.
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