From the course: Writing with Flair: How to Become an Exceptional Writer

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Dubious distinctions

Dubious distinctions

From the course: Writing with Flair: How to Become an Exceptional Writer

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Dubious distinctions

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Jennifer's painting was the most breathtaking, impressive, and striking piece among the seven competition entries. That sounds fine, on the face of it, right? But think about whether any of those descriptive words are, in fact, lazy, whether they're making a meaningful contrast with another word. Are striking and impressive and breathtaking, all sufficiently distinct words to be worth having together in the same sentence? Well, possibly. But, as an elite writer, you do need to at least ask that kind of question. Breathtaking and impressive and striking all sound quite similar, don't they? Some of them contain the other word, and so on, so you wanna look at those distinctions. Doesn't the word breathtaking, for instance, already imply that the painting is impressive? What about if we just remove the word from the sentence, the word impressive, and said, Jennifer's painting was the most breathtaking and striking piece among the seven competition entries? Also wouldn't Jennifer's…

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