Stylistic Pet Peeves of Mine
61
Daniel J. Neumann
Professor Yonker (Senior Seminar)
Response #4
February 7th, 2012
Stylistic Pet Peeves of Mine
I’m a follower of “show, don’t tell” in all cases, for artistic and technical writing. I found out early, in my fictional prose, that constantly describing a character’s emotions explicitly dulls a read. Why write “Jack then asked Jennifer, ‘Where do we go from here?’,” when the punctuation at the end clearly implies that Jack asked a question? It’s redundant and a waste of space. Why write “Jennifer felt sad,” when you could write “Jennifer hung her head low, avoiding eye contact. ‘Why does it matter where we’re going, anyway? Life disguises hopelessness with cruel delusions of love’,” and express that sentiment by example? It takes the fun out of reading to tell rather than show; it steals all the interpretation or effort involved on the part of the reader. It’s like spoon-feeding an adult. For the same reason as to why we know why our friends feel the way they do, readers can figure out the mood of a character. By the same token, I abhor the abuse of explanation points. This happens far too frequently in amateur journalism or marketing: “Try such-and-such today!” Persuasion should come from the content of the message, not the signpost at the end. If you need to use an exclamation point, you’ve failed as a communicator (or, at the very least, admitted laziness).
I also dislike the improper use of semi-colons. They ought to be a rare occurrence. I use them only when two independent clauses feel like they should be separated by a comma, when I’d rather see the two thoughts as a single run-on sentence than two lonely islands. The two independent clauses should be as bound together as a Siamese twin. They ought to be no need for conjunctions. If a semi-colon is used right, you can read it aloud and it’ll sound perfect with the shorter pause.
Last—but not least—I’ve a problem with the so-called objective voice. I know that the sciences and, unfortunately, the humanities of academia prefer the use of “one” instead of “I.” Presumably, that removes the bias of the author and improves professionalism. I don’t agree. Since human beings write essays, they inherently possess subjective beliefs. A subject may (by delusion) consider him or herself to be objective, but that doesn’t erase the intentions and past experiences flavoring the setting of ideas down on paper. I think it stifles academics to conceal subjectivity in an essay because the reader might accept the illusion of objectivity, putting undue faith in its apparent factual conclusions without considering the agenda of the author.
