Author: Wilf Popoff

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Wilf Popoff

Wasted Words: Jobspeak, the Language of Work

July 8, 2014 by Wilf Popoff | 6 Comments on Wasted Words: Jobspeak, the Language of Work

At an age when young men are learning to shave, I was hanging out at police stations and courthouses. No, I wasn’t in trouble with the law. I was a newspaper reporter, writing about the legal problems of others and the policemen* who brought them to justice. In fact, the only crimes I committed were […]

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Wasted Words: Careless Pirates

May 27, 2014 by Wilf Popoff | 4 Comments on Wasted Words: Careless Pirates

To create a great language simply plunder other tongues of their attractive words, assimilate them and profess longstanding ownership. English proves this. Oxford has half a million distinct words. Add technical and slang and you’ve topped one million, says the Global Language Monitor. Most are swag. Unfortunately, piracy can be thoughtless. We are all accomplices, […]

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An Editor Who Laughed at Her Work

March 4, 2014 by Wilf Popoff | 4 Comments on An Editor Who Laughed at Her Work

As an editor Karen Virag never seemed to flinch when she spotted a gaffe. Why should she? She had the smarts to identify the problem and the skill to correct it. She also recognized that without bad writing she wouldn’t have a job. Such virtues apply to any competent editor, but Karen went further. She […]

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Wasted Words: The Tragedies and Farces of History

December 10, 2013 by Wilf Popoff | 3 Comments on Wasted Words: The Tragedies and Farces of History

  “History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce, third as more repetition.” I know Marx would have added that last part had he been on the ball. In the event, he was so fixated on dialectical something or other that he didn’t get around to it. And then there was the business about workers […]

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WASTED WORDS: Squandering Words on Money

October 9, 2013 by Wilf Popoff | 3 Comments on WASTED WORDS: Squandering Words on Money

The love of money is not only the root of all evil; it is also the root of ghastly copy. I find it particularly ironic that word economy has only a fleeting acquaintance with commerce. Consider the grating and ubiquitous tautology, expensive price, as in, “The house with a river view comes at a more […]

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WASTED WORDS: Stalking Verbosity

July 30, 2013 by Wilf Popoff | 4 Comments on WASTED WORDS: Stalking Verbosity

Verbosity is the technical term for Wasted Words and it reflects the ongoing motif of this blog series. Verbosity noun the fact or quality of using more words than needed; wordiness. (Oxford Online Dictionary) Not much here to make a writer proud. I admit to being verbosity-obsessed: while writing I’m terrorized by the possibility I’ll […]

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WASTED WORDS: A World Without Problems

June 11, 2013 by Wilf Popoff | 1 Comment on WASTED WORDS: A World Without Problems

“Houston we have a challenge!” “This is Houston Apollo. What do you mean by challenge?” “A power drop in one of the two main electrical circuits.” “That’s a problem Apollo. Can’t copy challenge.” I’ve altered parts of this celebrated exchange from 43 years ago to support my case. At the time challenge was a word […]

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WASTED WORDS: My hit list

February 5, 2013 by Wilf Popoff | 2 Comments on WASTED WORDS: My hit list

I have a dream: English users create their equivalent to the Académie Française to mind the language. I’m at the first hearing of this august body presenting a list of words I want banned. The English Academy must acquiesce if the language is to be saved. First up is the noun process. I recognize that this […]

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WASTED WORDS: The editor as analyst

November 24, 2012 by Wilf Popoff | Leave a Comment

Wasted Words is a series of musings on language and usage by editor emeritus Wilf Popoff. I find it hard to edit without playing amateur psychologist. Why did the writer do this? Carelessness? Ignorance? Of course it can be either. Compared to editors writers are not as alert, which is why they need us. But […]

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