From the course: Writing in Plain English (2016)

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Eliminate vague words and expressions

Eliminate vague words and expressions

From the course: Writing in Plain English (2016)

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Eliminate vague words and expressions

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- What comes to mind when you hear the word weasel? The small mammal that's an active predetor, long and slender with short legs? Or maybe the slang term, that scheming deceitful, conniving person who will do whatever's neccessary to get what he wants. As in he weaseled his way out of attending the meeting by saying he was stuck in traffic. Or the slang verb for physical removal, the dog managed to weasel out of the cage. Those are all legitimate meanings of weasel. Now let's talk about weasel words, that informal expression to define meaningless, vague words that add nothing to a sentence except extra words. Words that may try to either overstate or understate something, to give an overexaggerated view or to intentionally mislead. We often find them in advertising and politics. They're like that dog trying to get out of something. They help the writer get out of giving specifics of providing concrete evidence. I like Stewart Chaplin's definition in Stained Glass Political Platform…

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