Carls reasoning behind this task was that those words don't enhance the story, even if it seems like it might. For example, is there actually a strong difference between "smelly" and "very smelly"? Not enough to make the "very" relevant or necessary.
These words have no place in news stories, and they also have no place in websites. These are places where simplicity is needed, not detailed complexity.
This chapter also discusses instructions, and why they should be eliminated at all cost. Most people already don't want to take a survey or questionnaire about a website -- they also don't want to read a paragraph of instructions on how to take a survey.
tips
- nobody really reads instructions, make them short
- don't use happy talk, it contains no informative content
When the shadow of the sash appeared on the curtains it was between seven and eight o' clock and then I was in time again, hearing the watch. It was Grandfather's and when Father gave it to me he said I give you the mausoleum of all hope and desire; it's rather excruciatingly apt that you will use it to gain the reducto absurdum of all human experience which can fit your individual needs no better than it fitted his or his father's. I give it to you not that you may remember time, but that you might forget it now and then for a moment and not spend all your breath trying to conquer it. Because no battle is ever won he said. They are not even fought. The field only reveals to man his own folly and despair, and victory is an illusion of philosophers and fools. Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury.
It was about 7:30 when I checked my watch. The watch was passed down from my grandfather to my father to me. My father said it was the encompassment of hope and desire. It is not for remembering time, it's in hope that you will forget time every now and again, and not spend your life worrying about time. Time is a battle that is not won or even fought.
