The Dictionary of Concise Writing: More Than 10,000 Alternatives to Wordy Phrases

by Robert Hartwell Fiske, Richard Lederer (Foreword)

Concise alternatives for thousands of common, wordy phrases are provided in this guide to clean, strong prose. Updated and revised with hundreds of new entries, this new edition can tidy up any writer's long-winded phraseology with such helpful replacements as "because" for "based on the fact that," "cease" for "put an end to," and "violate" for "fail to comply with."

Genres: Writing, Reference, Language, Nonfiction

420 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1996

Reviews

[Jus]

“To The Point - A dictionary of concise writing” by Robert Hartwell Fiske. A good reference book, how to reduce the number of words in a phrase. Ideal for writers who “want to build a more pithy vocabulary.”

[Mike]

An effective reference for countering wordy writing. Pleasant reading as well.

Notes:
Polonius: What do you read, my lord?
Hamlet: Words, words, words.

The Perfectibility of Words
--Of Polish and Panache
reducing # of words in a phrase
substituting a single word for a phrase
--Euphemisms ... Instead Of ... Use

The Imperfectibility of People
---business jargon
---political cant
---academic speak

Dictionary of Concise Writing

Guide to obfuscation: a reverse dictionary