The Dictionary of Concise Writing: The Dimwit's Dictionary, by Robert Fiske

Reviewed by Lisa Shea

The English language is going to hell in a hand basket.

Robert Hartwell Fiske agrees, but cringes at the choice of words. Going to hell in a hand basket is a dimwitticism. A word coined by Fiske, "dimwitticisms are worn-out words and phrases, expressions that dull our reason and dim our insight, formulas that we rely on when we are too lazy to express what we think or even to discover how we feel." Overused words and phrases bother him. They bother him so much he has become the Don Quixote of diction, a lone knight with a seemingly impossible dream.

It was after returning from extended studies abroad that Fiske realized how poorly Americans use their language. "I became preternaturally conscious of how people spoke, the nonsense of so much of it, the dimwitticisms people relied on," he explains.

Mr. Fiske is the author of The Dictionary of Concise Writing: 10,000 Alternatives to Wordy Phrases and The Dimwit’s Dictionary: 5,000 Overused Words and Phrases and Alternatives to Them. Both books offer writers and speakers the chance to choose crisp, accurate wording over the clichéd vernacular on which we have come to depend.

He is also the editor and publisher of The Vocabula Review, an online journal dedicated to the correct and elegant use of the English language. The journal’s mission is detailed in an eloquent manifesto that can be viewed at the website, but it is simply captured by the TVR motto, "A society is generally as lax as its language."

Fighting the devolution of our language is not a simple vocation. With politicians, business people and celebrities modeling lazy English, Fiske is not surprised that our population has come to rely on tired words and nonsense phrases. He also blames dictionaries and their authors, describing most lexicographers as too permissive. "People using disinterested when they mean uninterested do not displease them," he explains. "They maintain the language is evolving…if there are enough uneducated people saying disinterested when they mean uninterested or indifferent…lexicographers enter the definition into their dictionaries. I fight against that."

Mr. Fiske, a former editor for Addison-Wesley and a playwright, is also critical of contemporary writing. "There are writers who indeed write very well, but most of the people who write—it must be clear to anyone who reads—write rather badly, neither clearly nor grammatically." His advice to writers? "Read well, think often, write if you must."

If you are beginning to wonder if Mr. Fiske takes his English a little too seriously, he insists we can relax in his presence and that he, too, makes linguistic mistakes. Those who know him need not feel they are under constant scrutiny. The author saves his critiquing for high profile authors and orators. "The more public the person, the less tolerant I am, and we all should be."

Mr. Fiske continues to find windmills to slay. He is beginning work on his next book, Elegant English. The slim volume will discuss how to write elegantly and is "the inescapable sequel to The Dimwit’s Dictionary." He has also begun work on The Vocabula Style Guide, "an exhaustive listing of Vocabula Review’s style standards on spelling, punctuation, grammar, and usage that often cause some confusion among writers and editors." What’s more, he is seeking a publisher for Vocabula Bound, a collection of twenty or more of the best essays published in The Vocabula Review over the last three years.

Whether you are a grammarphile or a grammarphobe, Robert Harwell Fiske is a name you should know. If you are a lover of language, a guru of grammar and a connoisseur of clean copy, you will find a satisfactory fix in The Vocabula Review. If, conversely, you find yourself too often turning to "withered words" and "wretched redundancies," his books deserve a permanent space near your keyboard. The Dictionary of Concise Writing and The Dimwit’s Dictionary can be ordered at www.vocabula.com.

Lisa Naeger Shea writes from her home in St. Louis, Missouri USA, which she shares with her husband and three daughters. Her work has appeared in an assortment of national magazines and websites and will be featured in upcoming anthologies, Chocolate for the Teen Soul and Small Miracles for Families. Lisa's monthly family humor column, Notes from the Tub, can be seen at www.SanityCentral.com.