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Murder your darlings: Difference between revisions
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Avoid definitions. Mostly, people can figure out what you mean with little doubt from the context. Only use definitions when you are using a woord in a specific way that does not align with its ordinary meaning. | ====General Principles==== | ||
*''Avoid definitions''. Mostly, people can figure out what you mean with little doubt from the context. Only use definitions when you are using a woord in a specific way that does not align with its ordinary meaning. | |||
**So don't define "tax" as any tax, duty, excise, deduction, witholding impost or lvey imposed by a competent authority any other familiar term that will, you know, ''show up on the Google as a freaking synonym for "tax"''. | **So don't define "tax" as any tax, duty, excise, deduction, witholding impost or lvey imposed by a competent authority any other familiar term that will, you know, ''show up on the Google as a freaking synonym for "tax"''. | ||
*''Use the active tense''. Avoid the passive whenever you can. | |||
====Specific examples==== | |||
*''For the avoidance of doubt'': This is an explicit acknowledgment that what you have just written contains doubt. You are a solicitor. You are an officer of the Queen's English. Physician, heal thyself. | |||
* | |||
*"(including, without limitation ...)" | *"(including, without limitation ...)" | ||
*"unless otherwise agreed by the parties" | *"unless otherwise agreed by the parties": This is true of every english law contract there ever was. The clue is the definition of "contract". It's ''an agreement between the parties''. | ||
*"and/or" | *"and/or" | ||
*"We reserve the right to ..." - Wait a minute: Did you just give that right away? If so, you can't reserve it. If you didn't, you've still got it, so - you know - ''shut up already''. | *"We reserve the right to ..." - Wait a minute: Did you just give that right away? If so, you can't reserve it. If you didn't, you've still got it, so - you know - ''shut up already''. | ||