zlacker

>>cosmoj+(OP)
I couldn't disagree more with this piece, especially the idea of a "draft #4" where you go through what you've written and replace all "pedestrian" words with less common ones from the dictionary. I know these writers, and how they "write" - it's painful to read and oozes pretentiousness. You can always tell when someone tries to fake having a wider vocabulary.

>>suctio+l9
Before folks vote up this facile, misguided criticism, at least read the referenced essay https://jsomers.net/mcphee-draft-no-4.pdf

The whole point of published writing is to put enough effort into one-to-many communication to be clear, concise, and expressive. Finding the right words (not the fanciest or rarest words) helps writing to better transmit intention from author to reader.

Careful revision and editing should be celebrated as expressing appreciation for readers, not sneered at as inauthentic.

>>jacobo+db
> Before folks vote up this facile

Word not found.

Did you mean: shallow?

>>avgcor+ne
facile | ˈfasʌɪl, ˈfasɪl | adjective 1 ignoring the true complexities of an issue; superficial: facile generalizations. • (of a person) having a superficial or simplistic knowledge or approach: a man of facile and shallow intellect. 2 (especially of success in sport) easily achieved; effortless: a facile seven-lengths victory.

I guess someone needs a better dictionary (this was sourced from Dictionary.app on MacOS, btw...)

>>boffin+og
> facile | ˈfasʌɪl, ˈfasɪl | adjective 1 ignoring the true complexities of an issue; superficial: facile generalizations. • (of a person) having a superficial or simplistic knowledge or approach: a man of facile and shallow intellect. 2 (especially of success in sport) easily achieved; effortless: a facile seven-lengths victory.

>

> I guess someone needs a better dictionary (this was sourced from Dictionary.app on MacOS, btw...)

I think you are reinforcing the authors point. That definition most certainly does not present a mental image of prose in which the best word is 'facile'. Instead it makes me think that 'facile' is almost indistinguishable from 'ignorant'.

Compare that definition to the one from Websters 1913-1928 definition:

      Fac"ile (?) a. [L. facilis, prop., capable of being done or made, hence, facile, easy, fr. facere to make, do: cf. F. facile. Srr Fact, and cf. Faculty.] 1. Easy to be done or performed: not difficult; performable or attainable with little labor.

          *Order . . . will render the work facile and delightful.*

      Evelyn.

      2. Easy to be surmounted or removed; easily conquerable; readily mastered.

          *The facile gates of hell too slightly barred.*

      Milton.

      3. Easy of access or converse; mild; courteous; not haughty, austere, or distant; affable; complaisant.

          *I meant she should be courteous, facile, sweet.*

      B. Jonson.

      4. Easily persuaded to good or bad; yielding; ductile to a fault; pliant; flexible.

          *Since Adam, and his facile consort Eve,
          Lost Paradise, deceived by me.*

      Milton.

          *This is treating Burns like a child, a person of so facile a disposition as not to be trusted without a keeper on the king's highway.*

      Prof. Wilson.

      5. Ready; quick; expert; as, he is facile in expedients; he wields a facile pen.

Which definition more accurately represents the word as it is used in prose? 'Facile' and 'delightful' go together quite well. 'Ignorant' and 'delightful' do not.

>>lelant+gi
See also Spanish “fácil” which means “easy”.

Some apparently less common senses that Merriam Webster gave me:

- archaic : mild or pleasing in manner or disposition

- ready, fluent

- poised, assured

So what’s a “facile piece of writing”? Something that was easy to write? Maybe too easy to write? Or easy to read? (Or too easy to read…)

Well, something being easy is definitely an insult in the minds of pretentious people.