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Showing posts from December, 2021

Lessons on long-windedness

  Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas once said in an interview, “Genius is taking a 20-dollar idea and putting it into a two-dollar sentence. It’s not taking a two-dollar idea and putting it into a twenty-dollar sentence.” I wholeheartedly agree with that statement, although I am not always good at practicing it. I enjoy talking and writing. I also enjoy arguing, which is why my parents have often said I should’ve gone to law school. I can sometimes get pretty wordy, especially when I’m trying to make a point or try to make someone understand something I don’t think they quite get. Using words to get an idea across is a good thing, and being able to use them well is a gift. However, if we use too many words, we lose the attention of our readers or listeners. Being wordy can also cause us to lose focus on the point we’re trying to make, and then it just turns into a lot of distracting and pretty words. When I was a rookie reporter over 20 years ago, I did some freelance for a lar...