Feb 6, 2014 - Bryan Garner, in A Dictionary of Modern American Usage, says. Slayer Slang offers a robust defence of new, 'unnecessary' usages. These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'unnecessary.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
From the experts: Isla is the name of a Scottish river, an island (spelled Islay), and the hot young red-haired actress Isla Fisher, wife of Sacha Baron Cohen. Isla is also popular overseas, especially in England, Wales, and her native Scotland.
Isla Black Hitchens is a Harry Potter character; Queen Elizabeth has a great-granddaughter named Isla Elizabeth Phillips. Is Isla's newborn popularity a plus or a minus?
Only you can decide, though the parent who chooses Isla because they've never heard it before and believes they rarely will again is sure to be disappointed. Isla is part of a trend for simple, old-fashioned that start and end with a vowel: Ava, Ada, Ella, Emma, Eva, Ida, Ivy. Some other similar names that are not as trendy as Isla: Islay and Ailsa.
Lang, Australian actress, Anglo-Scottish actress, Scottish actress and singer St (born ), Scottish actress and singer Traquair, Scottish broadcast journalist Short, Scottish racing cyclist, actress Bamber (b. 2003), daughter of actors and Bamber (b. 2007), daughter of footballer and Rivas Lough (b.
2007), daughter of distance runners and Lough Halls (b. 2012), daughter of TV host Halls (b. 2012), daughter of; great-granddaughter of II Sidwell (b. 2012), daughter of actor Sidwell Hefford Kauth (b. 2013), daughter of ice hockey players Jayna Hefford and Kauth (b.
2014), daughter of singer of band 6 Parcell, daughter of blogger Parcell Woodhouse, daughter of footballer Woodhouse Giacone (b. 2016), daughter of TV personalities and Giacone of 'The Real World: Skeletons' Earnhardt (b.2018), daughter of American stock car racing driver Earnhardt. 2018), daughter of American actor Klein, sister to (b. 2013), daughter of swimmer Beard.
Please add to or correct the information provided by other members of the Nameberry community. Isla Lang Fisher, Australian actress Isla Blair, Anglo-Scottish actress Isla Cameron, Scottish actress and singer Isla St Clair (born Isabella Margaret Dyce), Scottish actress and singer Isla Fiona Traquair, Scottish broadcast journalist Isla Short, Scottish racing cyclist Isla Watt, English actress Isla Elizabeth Angela Griffith Bamber (b.
2003), daughter of actors Kerry Norton and Jamie Bamber Isla Lampard (b. 2007), daughter of footballer Frank Lampard and Elen Rivas Isla Lough (b. 2007), daughter of distance runners Paula Radcliffe and Gary Lough Isla Grace Halls (b. 2012), daughter of TV host Monty Halls Isla Elizabeth Phillips (b. 2012), daughter of Peter Phillips; great-granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II Isla Grace Sidwell (b. 2012), daughter of actor Aaron Sidwell Isla Hefford Kauth (b.
2013), daughter of ice hockey players Jayna Hefford and Kathleen Kauth Isla Elizabeth Collins (b. 2014), daughter of singer Max Collins of band Eve 6 Isla Rose Parcell, daughter of blogger Rachel Parcell Isla Woodhouse, daughter of footballer Curtis Woodhouse Isla Rose Giacone (b. 2016), daughter of TV personalities Tony and Alyssa Giacone of 'The Real World: Skeletons' Isla Rose Earnhardt (b.2018), daughter of American stock car racing driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. And Amy Reimann. Isla Rose Klein (b.
2018), daughter of American actor Chris Klein, sister to Frederick Easton Doone Isla Brown (b. 2013), daughter of swimmer Amanda Beard and Sacha Brown.
Please add to or correct the information provided by other members of the Nameberry community. My name is Isla:) I’m 15 and from England, I only know of one other Isla who’s a few years younger. People do struggle with the pronunciation of my name, but it’s actually shocking me with how many people can say it right. None of my new teachers have mispronounced it!!!
I love my name, it’s sentimental as I am half Scottish myself, and if people don’t understand how say it, tell your daughter to say: “it’s just like island, without the nd” Some people call me Islam, because it’s only a letter difference, and some people mispronounce it on purpose, but it doesn’t happen too often. It’s just a funny nickname, you get those with every name, especially when you’re in school! I can understand the appeal of Isla- it sounds short-and-sweet, spunky and feminine. But I personally don't like the 'eye-la' pronunciation- there's so much emphasis on the 'I' that all I hear is EYE.
Also, this name has exploded in popularity, but in a strange contradiction, people also mispronounce the name 'iss-la' all the time. I even know a couple who named their daughter this, and pronounced it 'iss-la' (accidentally at first, and later deliberately because they just liked than pn better:/ ). Plus whenever I see Isla spelled out, I feel like it's the word 'island' with missing letters. I much prefer Ilsa to Isla- not similar in sound, not a variant either, but so close in spelling! I can't see why it is so popular either.
It is at number three on the list in England. I am not saying this because I don't like it - it's certainly a beautiful name - but I just can't see what makes so, so many people want to call their daughter Isla, how it can fit the bill of the one, wonderful, only possible name for so many people. Looking at the other top names on the list, Amelia, Emily, Sophie and other such names are absolute classics; while perhaps they don't equal Isla in prettiness, they are longstanding classics. Isla is a name which hundreds of prospective parents suddenly shovelled up from obscurity and gave it to their child, so many for it to skyrocket, suddenly. It doesn't make sense. Well, at least Isla isn't that hard to pronounce.
And even if people pronounce it as ees-la instead of eye-la, it still sounds pretty. I'm not lucky enough to have a name that sounds nice when it's mispronounced.
My name is Meleigha, pronounced Mel-ee-ah. Everyone says 'mel-ay-ah,' 'mel-ga-ha,' 'mel-ee-ja.' 'ma-leigh-a,' and sometimes even Malaysia.
XP I've never, ever met a single person who's pronounced it perfectly after first hearing it, or asked me to repeat myself multiple times. So I don't think Isla is that bad compared to some names, since there's really only one likely way it'll be mispronounced. WARNING ABOUT THIS NAME!!! We also named our little girl Isla, back when it was rare and different. My poor kid is CONSTANTLY dealing with people unable to pronounce her name! We correct people constantly and she will probably have to do so for the rest of her life.
And we now hear this name everywhere. Not as common or popular as Isabella, but I feel it is heading that way.
For those of you thinking about this name, be careful. We also have to deal with all of the Disney addicts that were obsessed with Elsa and wanted something similar.
Do you sound smarter when you use big words? According to a study published in, the answer is no. In fact, complex writing makes you sound small-minded. Just consider the title of the study: Consequences of erudite vernacular utilized irrespective of necessity: problems with using long words needlessly. Wouldn’t it be better to title this study something like The effect of using big words when you don’t need them? To sound smart, you must stop trying to sound smart.
Brilliant writing is simple writing, a relevant idea delivered clearly and directly. Here are 11 ways you can start sounding brilliant: 1. Have something to say This makes writing easier and faster. When you have nothing to say, you are forced to write sentences that sound meaningful but deliver nothing. Choose your subjects wisely.
Then share your information with readers. Be specific Consider two sentences:. I grow lots of flowers in my back yard. I grow 34 varieties of flowers in my back yard, including pink coneflowers, purple asters, yellow daylilies, Shasta daisies, and climbing clematis. Which is more interesting?
Which helps you see my back yard? Choose simple words Write use instead of utilize, near instead of close proximity, help instead of facilitate, for instead of in the amount of, start instead of commence. Use longer words only if your meaning is so specific no other words will do.
Write short sentences You should keep sentences short for the same reason you keep paragraphs short: they’re easier to read and understand. Each sentence should have one simple thought. More than that creates complexity and invites confusion.
Use the active voice In English, readers prefer the SVO sentence sequence: Subject, Verb, Object. This is the active voice.
For example: Passive sentences bore people. When you reverse the active sequence, you have the OVS or passive sequence: Object, Verb, Subject. For example: People are bored by passive sentences. You can’t always use the active voice, but most writers should use it more often. Keep paragraphs short Look at any newspaper and notice the short paragraphs. That’s done to make reading easier, because our brains take in information better when it’s broken into small chunks.
In academic writing, each paragraph develops one idea and often includes many sentences. But in casual, everyday writing, the style is less formal and paragraphs may be as short as a single sentence or even a single word.
Eliminate fluff words Qualifying words, such as very, little, and rather, add nothing to your meaning and suck the life out of your sentences. For example: It is very important to basically avoid fluff words because they are rather empty and sometimes a little distracting. Mark Twain suggested that you should “Substitute damn every time you’re inclined to write very; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.” 8. Don’t ramble Rambling is a big problem for many writers. Not as big as some other problems, such as affordable health insurance or the Middle East, which has been a problem for many decades because of disputes over territory. Speaking of which, the word “territory” has an interesting word origin from terra, meaning earth. But the point is, don’t ramble.
Don’t be redundant or repeat yourself Also, don’t keep writing the same thing over and over and over. In other words, say something once rather than several times. Because when you repeat yourself or keep writing the same thing, your readers go to sleep. Don’t over write This is a symptom of having too little to say.
Put your reader first. Put yourself in the background. Focus on the message. For example: You can instantly and dramatically improve your blog writing skills and immediately explode your profits and skyrocket your online success by following the spectacular, simple, and practical tips found in this groundbreaking new free blog post. Edit ruthlessly Shorten, delete, and rewrite anything that does not add to the meaning. It’s okay to write in a casual style, but don’t inject extra words without good reason.
To make this easier, break your writing into three steps: 1) Write the entire text. 2) Set your text aside for a few hours or days. 3) Return to your text fresh and edit. None of us can ever be perfect writers, and no one expects us to be.
However, we can all improve our style and sound smarter by following these tips and writing naturally. Basically rambling only “works” when the intent is humor.
It distracts us from an initial point, sometimes returning us there via a circuitous route, sometimes dropping us off at the head of a totally new pathway. Handled with care, it can leave the reader saying ‘hmph’ to himself as he grins at being cleverly tricked. Handled poorly, it can be accompanied by the sound of a book being slammed shut and tossed into the fire. I ramble far too much.
Not because I have nothing to say or am pretentious, but because I have ADD and that’s the way my brain works. I think that I get more ideas on paper faster than most people, but I think it likely that I spend more time editing in order to get decent copy, too. I ramble a ton, and like Bill it’s not to be egotistical or for filler (typically), it’s just that is how I’ve always written.
I actually do write with a personal style, but part of my personal style IS my rambling. However, perhaps that should be my next “elimination round” for re-writing since I get less than 50 VIEWS not visits, not subscribers, but VIEWS a day.
My HIGHEST has been 75 VIEWS in a day. No subscribers. The more I read about other people’s blogs, the more envious I get. But, I will also say that I’ve been too heavy handed on the “good grammar” aspect of using 4-6 sentence paragraphs, instead of limiting my paragraphs to a just a few sentences if that was all that was necessary. There I go rambling again. I think the title of that study is really clever, though.
How often are the titles of studies funny, while also clearly illustrating the point of the study? I know it’s widely accepted writing tips gospel, but I’m still unconvinced by the “passive voice must be avoided!” rule of writing. See, when I was taught English (as a foreign language), I was told, “in English, the passive voice is used very often so you will have to learn how to use it.” I did, like a good little student, only to be told later in life I should stop! Did the last paragraph really bore you that much? (Did you even notice?) Is the active form really always better?
Where did this anti-passive sentiment start? I realise you may not have the answers, but I’ve long wondered, so if you do, fill me in! I love the big words. But I tend not to write them so much as I would speak them, so it’s not a problem in my blogging. Just two days ago I was reading Ray Bradbury’s Zen and the Art of Writing and a maxim jumped right out at me: “when you write quickly, you write honestly.” I love that.
It’s both true and useful. And to follow along with today’s point, when you write quickly, you can’t stuff your writing full of multi-syllabic nonsense someone else can’t easily decipher. @willie, passive voice isn’t always a bad thing. But in general, I agree with Shane & Dean, active voice is clearer and it always identify who or what is doing the action of the sentence. Too often, passive voice is used to keep from getting clear about what’s actually going on. The classic example being “mistakes were made.” Well ok, that’s helpful in one sense, but it would be good to know who made them.
The reason so many writing teachers recommend reworking passive to active is it’s a quick way to make your writing simpler and more direct. I like the way Dean framed it, rather than saying “it’s always wrong.”. says. Your post was very good, Dean. A nice, clean, spare writing style is something to be envied. I go in spurts. When I organize myself and clear my head, I do well.
My thoughts flow and I lose myself in my writing. I glance at the clock and realize I’ve been writing and editing the same piece for 2 hours. I feel good about the end result. Then, the next day, things may go all to heck in a handcart.
I allow the tyranny of the urgent to take over and find myself racing to get things done. My work suffers, my desk gets more cluttered and I get so scattered I don’t do anything particularly well. That’s when I pull back and decide to let my writing take a breather, while I catch up on other things. I don’t allow myself to turn out garbage.
When I’m back to the right place in my head, I start writing again. Thanks for the reminders and the little insights.
Steve Benedict. says. OK, well, I’m not trying to start the passive voice appreciation society here (although I do think it’s been unneccesarily hated on by some). And, yes, the passive voice can be and is used to obfuscate. Sometimes, though, who is doing the obfuscating (for example) is either unimportant or really obvious (here it’s clearly the aforementioned soap-using politicians).
(The bastards.) I guess my main issue with “avoid the passive voice” as writing advice is that for many of us, determining whether a sentence is in active or passive voice is a non-trivial task. It is a non-trivial task to me, and I’m.good. at grammar. Instead of spending time working out whether each of your sentences is active or passive, is it not more efficient to hunt for things that are unclear, or wordy, or that sound like a civil servant wrote it? Dean Love this as so many of us are guilty of these at one point or another. I am not a fan of the big words as it do not find them to be very conversational. I do not necessarily talk in big words so why would I write that way is sort of my model for writing.
For me it is not necessarily about looking smarter or not, it is about how I talk and transferring that over to how I write. These tips are ones to remember esp when we do start to ramble – resists the inviting temptation. @SuzanneVara. says. I got a kick out of this: Mark Twain suggested that you should “Substitute ‘damn’ every time you’re inclined to write ‘very’; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.” It’s damn good! Edited: It’s good; hmm it doesn’t sound as good as it seems. This is the case where you gotta keep the ‘damn’!
Of course it’s not professional, but you don’t have to be. One side thought: Although many Copyblogger posts are driving home the same messages, repetition is crucial in making the messages stick.
Everytime I read a new post, I get some new ideas to work on. This always happens even if I’d already seen the tips/advices tens of times.
@Dean – Thanks for the article, and especially the damn fine Mark Twain quote. @WillieHewes – My gripe with passive voice is that it usually hurts clarity. I agree that “determining whether a sentence is in active or passive voice is a non-trivial task”, so I let Microsoft Word help. I swear that its grammar checker draws immense pleasure from harassing me about passive voice. I gripe, but my rewrite is usually much clearer. Maybe your word processing software has a similar torture-the-writer option. Word doesn’t have an option to flag writing that sounds-like-a-civil-servant-wrote-it though.
Maybe in the next version ?. says. This is an interesting study. However, this seems to be stating the obvious. Overusing complex terminology and vague adjectives definitely alienates the average reader. Technical vernacular is appropriate for trade journals and other professional publication but vague adjectives always make the writer seem less credible.
I am a journalism student at the University of Kansas and these are the types writing guideline that were drilled into our brains during the first research and writing class we were required to take. All these guidelines are basic AP and inverted pyramid news writing styles. Nevertheless, it is nice to see one scientific field provide legitimacy to the practices of another. Well, I think it’s pretty clear from the subtitle of the study that the main title was a joke And while a “conversational” style of copy is more effective in general, I think how far to go with that is dependent on the site that you are writing for.
If I’m writing copy for a VoTech, I do not want to go overly verbose, but sounding like I’m a teenager texting my friends does not work either. And while I suppose it is ultimately true that you have to take into account smaller and smaller vocabularies, sometimes it is just easier and more efficient to use a “big word”.
I try to use the simplest word that exactly fits the situation. Sometimes a ‘larger’, less familiar word is the correct match. “Dumbing down” is not the correct approach for everything. If I were describing a General speaking to the Senate, at first I would have him use military gobbledygook to try to BS the Senators (a pre-emptive counter-strike against the counter-insurgents., for instance). Then, when the bull stuff hit the PhD (Piled Higher & Deeper) levels, I’d have the Senators interrupt him for a definition in layman terms.
The General might not even know the layman terms so he/she would have to fumble in the simple-words backpack for something that might be useful. Finally, the Senators might choose to express their frustration and say something to the effect of “General, let’s cut to the chase when you aim the damned thing and pull the trigger, what in the hell is supposed to happen next?” Is there a simpler term for “gobbledygook”?
Definitely but you’d have to string a bunch of those simpler terms together to express the same thought and that would NOT simplify either the writing or the reading. There is concision in precision. Use a large word when it suits the purpose better than a short word or a brief phrase. Use the larger word when it will be understood by your audience at least as readily as-a-bunch-of-small-words-piled-up-in-a-three-high-traffic-accident-just-before-the-full-stop.
Just my 2 cents worth.attacking the lawful government. says. I love to writesimple. Earlier I used to feel I wasn’t good at writing for I couldn’t remember long words, however much I had tried. Really, I had given a lot to digest long dictionary word so that I could also write ‘good’.
Somewhere inside I always hated looking into the dictionary while reading books. And that was probably the reason why I could never remember long words.
When I started with content writing job, I realized that: at least on the web, nobody is going to sit with a dictionary to understand my text. I only use longer synonyms of any simple word when the word itself has been already used.
I, as a reader also, want to read and understand a sentence in an instant. And want to build up a similar content for all readersso now I love writing SIMPLE. The way to read a sentence “in an instant” ANY sentence is to build up your vocabulary and grammar. The way to do that is to read material that is challenging: not material with all the life sucked out of it by the “keep it simple” police.
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The way to limit your audience to those who can barely drool is to continually accommodate the least literate of them. As we have seen on the internet, that bar continually gets lower and lower. It’s a race to the bottom. All you have to do is find a line of fools, blow a whistle to get their attention, then walk away, dropping marshmallows behind you. In the end, your readers will not be able to understand you (in ANY language) and you will not be able to find simple enough words to actually communicate anything beyond “New!”, “Improved!”.
Don’t go there. Don’t lower your own command of the language and don’t talk down to your readers. Yes, you will gain the less literate but it will come at the expense of the more literate (who generally have more disposable income). Look at the ads for luxury automobiles. They generally have a few VERY well chosen words. They aren’t afraid of tossing in foreign terms or using unusual typefaces (which, I assure you, were as thoroughly tested as the words themselves). You will not become a better writer by abandoning your craft and aiming for the bottom of the pile.
You become a better writer by mastering your craft and aiming at any part of the pile you choose. All these rules basically work together – if you use one, often times, the rest will follow. For example, if you work on 4. “keeping it short,” you will also avoid 7-10, avoiding rambling, fluff, redundancy, and over writing. I agree that big words are not always best, but I’m not sure how I feel about steering clear of ‘longer’ words. Sometimes, I think “utilize” is an appropriate replacement for use. Use can sound bland whereas utilize, if you ask me, falls under step 2 of being specific – utilize paints a more descriptive image for the reader.
Other than that, I think these 11 tips are simple and completely on target. It’s hard to disappoint when you follow guidelines as point-blank and directional as these. And better yet, they apply to all forms or writing: blogs, memos, letters, documents, anything.
Amanda says. The ‘complex’ title that you described made me chuckle, and effectively got the point across. I have always struggled with keeping my writing concise and clear. Your post offers some great advice to students like me who are looking for ways to work on their writing.
Thanks for these tips. I always try to remember to cut out ‘fat’ around my message – excess words that do not really add to the sentence. It’s painful at first, but I can notice the improvement after. Remembering these tips can really help writers stand out, as you have described. Thanks again! I’ve added a couple counter-points to earlier comments. Now I’d like to suggest a #12.
Shoot it down if you can. Of those portions of the world who speak English, many of them speak it only as a second tongue, a language of necessity. It has to do with English speaking people having money and guns and a willingness to use one whenever the other fails to achieve the desired results. Those who read your material in their native language will bring a sense of gratitude and pride to the reading.
This can result in sales that would have otherwise been missed. So, here’s the proposed rule: Even if you also post in English, do not neglect to post in your native tongue. Fun fact of the day: ‘utilize’ doesn’t even mean ‘use.’ It means to use in a novel way.
If you put cereal in a bowl, you’re not utilizing it. If you put the bowl on your head to use as a guide for cutting hair, you’re probably also not utilizing it – lots of people have done that before. If you put the bowl on your head and then dangle a chain from your ear and pretend to be a lamp, while someone takes a picture, maybe then you’re utilizing the bowl. So – 90% of the time, if you’re using the word ‘utilize,’ you probably shouldn’t be.
Also – notice the single quotes around the words? Double quotes are for quotations, not emphasis. And, yeah, bold would be better still. Look at the time! I feel better now. I think it all depends on context, though. IMHO, big words can make you seem smarter, if you slip them in amidst a bunch of smaller ones.
It’s overkill that murders your prose. Not the use of big words. Anyway, thanks for this great article. Brevity is not my strong point. I like long sentences.
I have to resist the urge to use them quite often. I fail more often than not, however, and that’s why I must humbly thank you for this perfect article on the subject. Maybe this time the advice will go to heart.
Probably not. Have a great day, and happy writing! Okay, time for a difference of opinion. I don’t agree with this article one-hundred percent.
While it’s true that there are good books that are straight to the point, what’s wrong with novels with big words and loads of description? I ask you all to truly think about this.
You say we should all use smaller words, less complex words. Well then, why even have those big words in the dictionary if no one uses them? We might as well make our dictionaries simpler if our vocabularies are going to be so. But in the process, I feel, something terrible happens, our lives become a little less rich. So what if novel makes use of big words? Reading words I’m unfamiliar with has done no harm to me, but encouraged me to look through a dictionary to find their meanings.
This in turn has enlivened my vocabulary and made my life all the more richer and fulfilling. We should have the intelligence to learn new words, the mental comprehension to do so. Next issue I have with this article, the need to always write short sentences and never to ramble. Some of the greatest literature is incredibly wordy.
Let’s take a look at Moby Dick. It rambles on and on. Some people hate, I admit it.
But I found the book to be thought-provoking in it’s wordiness. The same goes for Great Expectations. These books, though wordy, allow to really reflect inner-thoughts in a way I have found very meaningful. Books with loads of description, like Lord of the Rings, with tons of sentences, going into detail descriptions on the lands alone, allow me immerse myself in the fantasy land that Tolkien has created, something I find fantasy books with shorter descriptions have not allowed me to do so.
There is a poetry to some of these long-winded novels, a beauty. As I said before, straight to the point novels with little description and smaller words are not bad novels. They can be very good novels. But wanting every novel to be written like that smacks of something the fast food generation wants, something called instant gratification. They want results now, they want their food now. Sometimes I wonder if there is a correlation to the fast food generation to people wanting their novels always simple and straight to the point.
To say that novels should only be written one way, which this article seems to be saying, is a disservice to literature and it’s many diverse writers. I ask you all to think it over.