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| ["Nothing"*] |
I teach English writing to first-year engineering students in Israel. As
their written communication skills in their own language are limited, partly as a result of the adopted
European policy to completely separating humanities from sciences as if science
people do not need to write, I assume no prior knowledge of writing and teach the
basic rules of sentence writing and paragraph organization as well as a few
tips on vocabulary. Among them, I tell them that I will not accept the use of
the word “thing” and even deduct points for it. This insistence may sound
extreme at first glance but one major distinction between speaking and writing
is that in the latter the writer has the privilege and duty to carefully consider
each word and choose precise terms, which almost always exist in English. My
approach is similar to “thing”’s cousins, something and nothing
but these words may be appropriate in certain cases.
The justification for being so particular in assessing writing skill is
that the process of writing involves not only the initial expression of the
thought but also the further refining of its form. As the expression says,
there is no good writing, only good rewriting.Readers do not want to read a first draft and naturally expect a carefully phrased text. While true
for all languages, English requires extra polishing due to the plethora of
language roots that have been integrated, often rather violently, into the
language. From Gaelic to Germanic to French Latin and ancient Greek, English is
the Frankenstein of world languages, rather imposing but a bit ugly, to the ear
at least, as compared to more homogenous languages such as French, Italian,
Hebrew and Russian, to name a few. Thus, to produce diamond of a text in
English requires effort (and why I appreciate the prose of George Orwell).
Furthermore, aside from emotions, English has a word for almost every existing
object, especially in science, making it possible to use the precise term.
Given the multitude of roots, many of the vocabulary options are far from high-falutin,
with the average 11th grade able to understand if not necessarily spell them. Thus, it is appropriate to demand that writers of English,
both native and non-native, use an exact term.
The word thing implies around 325,000 terms as well an additional
375,000 technical terms, according to Dr. Google. As an example, the phrase
“things” can be replaced, as relevant, by reasons, excuses, factors,
elements, data, objects, feelings, results, causes,
effects, events, products and facts, to name just a very few
that most English users would recognize and be able to use. As for specific technical terms, people
specializing in a specific subject area need to know the exact word in order to
express their ideas accurately. In some cases, this precision is a matter of
life and death or at least large sums of money. Given the privilege of being
able to refine a text before showing to the audience, as compared to spoken
language, it is brazenly lazy to write thing unless a person is writing
for small children.
As for something and nothing, the same statement is true
with some exceptions. A given company may have something special about it but
the investor would like to know whether it is the marketing strategy or actual
product. There may be nothing you can do about a situation when speaking
but somehow having no solutions sounds much more impressive in writing. Granted, if
the attribute is so ethereal that a person cannot identify its attributes, something
may be appropriate as James Taylor sings: “Something in the way she moves”. Of
course, mathematical zero is nothing as Billy Preston noted in “Nothing from
nothing leaves nothing”. Sometimes there simply is no precise word to describe
all the items as in “These are a few of my favorite things” of Sound
of Music fame. So, I never say never and occasionally accept these things.
Fairly or unfairly, people heavily judge writers of English by their
choice of vocabulary. Clearly, non-native writers have a lower bar in term of
vocabulary choice but that allowance does not waive the requirement to use
precise, albeit simple, words when preparing a written text. Clearly, things
lead to chaos as Dr. Seuss so well described in this book. However, even he added a number
to the shirt of his things to specify them. Proficient writers should have no things.
* Picture captions allow the blind to fully access the Internet.
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