i'm writing a paper.
and i look up the word "clearly"
and what do i see?
another scolding
well, at least this one didn't call me a pompous twit
the section is copied below:
clearly
Exaggerators like this word, along with its cousins ( obviously,undeniably, undoubtedly, and the like). Often a statement prefaced with one of these words is conclusory, and sometimes even exceedingly dubious. As a result—though some readers don't consciously realize it— clearly and its ilk are ‘weasel words’—that is, unnecessary words that supposedly intensify the meaning of a statement, but actually weaken it. Just how much clearly can weaken a statement is evident in the following example, in which the author uses the word to buttress a claim about his own state of mind: “Clearly, I am not to be convinced that this is a small matter.” (Stephen White, The Written Word; 1984.)
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1 comment:
This is clearly an interesting point that I did not realize before.
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