Wordsmithing
WORDSMITHING: The process of going through a document and making sure the best possible word is used in all circumstances. — ww.lewiswritingservices.com/glossary.htm
If there is one word I would like to ban permanently it’s wordsmithing. In my day job there is someone who likes to say “Give it to Tom for wordsmithing.” The implication, to my ear, is that editing is merely cosmetic. In fact, as we know, style is content and content is style, and a good editor’s work is substantive and not just superficial.
An analogy would be accusing a politician of not being substantive because he gives a good speech. But surely no one would ever make that charge, right?
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The screenshot above is from John Langdon’s Wordplay. Wordsmith is one of the ambigrams shown on the site. An ambigram is a graphic that spells a word in more than one direction. Wordmithing in this Lewis Carrollian sense is an acceptable usage.
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Posted: March 4th, 2008 under editing, language.
Comments: 2
Comments
Comment from Sylvia
Time: March 4, 2008, 10:51 am
Ambigrams?! I never knew they existed. Wow.
Comment from Buck
Time: March 4, 2008, 11:13 am
I do believe you’d get your butt kicked sayin somethin like that around here! (apologies to my censored office space quote). Wordsmith this, then run it through the buzzword text replacement generator. Using this method we end up with text that nobody can read, but it sounds 700% smarter!
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