: What is it called when an author uses vague words for concrete concepts, "hedging"? As an editor for an academic press, my pet peeve is when authors write sentences like "attempt to conceive

As an editor for an academic press, my pet peeve is when authors write sentences like "attempt to conceive of a possible approach to resolve X" instead of "try to resolve X". Obviously one big difference is just in the number of unnecessary words - but another difference is in how the author distances himself from the action. Is there a word for this tendency? Sure, sometimes it has a purpose -- but most times the author is just hedging responsibility. Is there a word in the writing world to describe this?

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@Sent2472441

Circumlocution.

Locution that circles around a specific idea with multiple words rather than directly evoking it with fewer and apter words.

Check the wiki article here.

Update

As an author, you'll sometimes want to use those either to avoid repetition (some sentences have the tendency to come out more often than you'd like), or specifically to avoid 'getting straight to the point'.

In your example, the circumlocution is used for this exactly; the sentence doesn't simply want say someone is trying to do X, but insisting on the fact that the whole process of 'trying' is not as straightfoward as the word alone might imply. It gives you greater detail to the process, and does have a nicer phrasing as well.

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: What is it called when an author uses vague words for concrete concepts, "hedging"? As an editor for an academic press, my pet peeve is when authors write sentences like "attempt to conceive

More posts by @Berryessa137

: How does one avoid imposing one's own voice and preferences in critiques? When critiquing another's writing I find myself making suggestions that are clearly biased toward how I would write the

: Wattpad is a really good place to start. Almost everyone there is an aspiring writer and hence encourage other writers immensely. You can update status and post messages to your audience. There

: Is scripting a cartoon tv show the same as scripting a movie? I don't know if this is the correct place to put this but here goes. I'm just curious if scripting a cartoon is like scripting

: How to write a book in 2 weeks? I got challenged to write a book of 100 pages in two weeks. I see this challenge as a game that can be played in many different ways. What are the most

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