Dean Schermerhorn's Blog

In the past few years I have noticed another example of our shrinking vocabulary: When people describe their reaction to any positive event or promising development, they almost invariably say that they are “very excited.” Although the English language has many words to express a positive emotion or sentiment, most people’s choices seem to have decreased to some variant of excite.

I would choose an alternative word that more precisely and emphatically describes a reaction to a pleasing event. After a short time thinking and consulting a thesaurus, I offer these adjectives: avid, beaming, cheerful, content, eager, elated, enthused, exhilarated, fascinated, glad, gratified, happy, intoxicated, invigorated, joyful, joyous, overjoyed, pleased, proud, radiant, thrilled and tickled.

First, a little more background on my inspiration for this blog: The examples of word usage that I cite here usually are not entirely new words or phrases. Instead, these wordy phrases (or simply uses of a longer word when a shorter, more precise word will do) have been around for a long time but have replaced more concise alternative words.

I mainly hear these usages while listening to TV news, when I notice that news writers and the anchors who read their copy always choose words that have the most sound but no more content than other common words. The same goes for reporters and especially their interview subjects. For today’s blog entry I will cite one small but common example of this: Period of time.

I hear this phrase used almost exclusively nowadays, even though using just one or the other of the nouns period or time would be sufficient. Webster’s New World College Dictionary, fourth edition, has more than a dozen definitions for period, including “the interval between certain happenings” and “a portion of time, often indefinite, characterized by certain events, processes, conditions, etc.” Many of the other definitions use the phrase “portion of time” or “interval of time.” Thus using either period or simply time would avoid this redundancy.

Several matters have drawn me away from my blog for the past several days. First, we will add a puppy to our family in about three weeks. Her name is Gracie, and I will add her photo once I learn to do that. Next, I have focused on networking to start building my business. Attending several networking lunches has given me a couple of possibly valuable contacts. The experience also helped me realize that I need to develop more effective marketing of my skills and experience. On the advice of other freelance writers, I am buying some recommended books with advice on prospering as a writer.

Finally I have been volunteering more time to the Democratic Party, for voter registration and the state convention. I also am working on improvements to my Web site. Please keep watching, as I have plenty of ideas for comments on word usage.

When I started my career in publishing, my managing editor and I enjoyed sharing redundancies and other examples of questionable word usage. Theodore Bernstein, auther of The Careful Writer, Watch Your Language and other books on writing, was one authority on whom we relied. I thought that Bernstein had given his judgment of a phrase that I seem to hear “on an hourly basis.” I cannot find that citation now, however, so I will just give my own opinion on it.

Speakers and writers could make their point more emphatically and directly by using a simple adverb or similar words instead of using “on a … basis” every time. Saying, for example, that I do something “daily” or “every day” sounds more concise and forceful than “I do that on a daily basis.” Besides just being wordy, “on a … basis” sounds as if you would do something as a general rule but not that you have made a commitment to doing it every day or every week or at whatever interval you choose.

This phrase has become quite common, or else I am just noticing it more since it started grating on me. In any case, it seems another example of my theory that some speakers and writers will always look for the most wordy way to state their point and use the most syllables that they can cram into a sentence.  

This map displays the earthquake swarm in Reno, which started in February. As I noted earlier, we live just a few blocks west of West McCarran Blvd., and a few blocks south of the 39 degrees, 32 minutes north line on this map.

If you have heard any news of Reno, Nevada, recently, the topic probably has been our swarm of earthquakes. I felt another small quake this morning, as I have for many days before and after the 4.7 quake at 11:40 last Saturday night.

We live in northwest Reno, about five miles from the epicenters in Mogul and Verdi. The homes with cracked walls, broken pipes and items that have fallen off walls and shelves are closer to the epicenters than our house. Many of these homes are in the Somersett development; they sit on much higher ground (and in a much higher income bracket) than we do. Our house apparently sits on pretty solid ground, as we have had only some small, light items fall off of shelves.

I will write new entries if we have more and stronger shaking. When I find some good links to earthquake Web sites, I will add links to those, too.

For the dozens of you who visited my blog on its debut yesterday, thanks for returning. I have given this blog a title in keeping with its initial theme, words and their use, or misuse, in my humble opinion.

Before I proceed, and until I learn a better location for this link, please visit my Web site, www.deanscribe.com, to learn more about my experience and view samples of my writing.

For my first entry on a word usage that has become common, I chose the noun reference. As with so many other words, this noun has become a verb. When people talk about something that they have read or seen, they say that they are referencing that article or book or TV program. They could just as easily, and more succinctly, say that they are referring to it.

Besides my objection to the noun-into-verb transition in general, the use of reference in place of the root verb refer is another example of seeking more bloated words when an existing, short and direct verb already exists. The last straw was hearing Keith Olbermann, whose “Countdown” program I always enjoy otherwise, use reference in this way.

Please return and read my next rant sensible and reasoned discussion on language and maybe other topics.

Today I begin my venture in blogging. My initial aim in creating this blog is to have a forum for my opinions on the use of the English language in writing and speaking. I have much to learn about blogging and other aspects of the new media. In writing, however, I have a good deal of experience. This blog gives me the opportunity to apply my traditional, print-oriented writing background, habits and preferences to a new medium. I welcome your comments.