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A man in Toronto owned a newspaper. Wishing to retire, he pestered his son to attend a course on writing. The young man was highly impressed by the charming, young, lady instructor who emphasized the importance of brevity. Time and again, she asked her students to listen to the master, Professor William Strunk, in the Elements of Style.
"Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell."
Upon successfully completing the course, the young man was appointed editor of the newspaper. One day he was strolling along a street in Kensington Market in downtown Toronto. He saw a sign over a shop which read: "Fresh fish for sale here today." Recalling Professor Strunk, he objected to the shopkeeper that the sentence had too many superfluous words and needed to be tightened up.
"It goes without saying," he said, "that the fish you're advertising is for sale today, not yesterday or tomorrow, so 'Fresh fish for sale here' would suffice. Furthermore, I think everyone understands that fresh fish is for sale here and not two blocks away or in India, so why not just say, 'Fresh fish for sale'? In fact since no one would expect you to advertise rotten fish, why say 'fresh fish'? 'Fish for sale' is just fine.
The shopkeeper kept on nodding his head in bewilderment.
Seconds later, another idea occurred to the editor.
"Moreover I don't think anyone wants to rent fish, so the 'for sale' part is not needed. 'Fish' is sufficient enough."
Then again an idea occurred to him.
"Come to think of it. I smelled your fish two blocks away, and so can everyone with a nose on his face. You don't need 'fish' either."
"What's your profession, young man?" asked the merchant.
"I'm an editor."
"Well, in that case, why don't you go and find an editor to show off your editing skills to," said the merchant, pointing the door to his visitor. "I have to sell fish."
*** The End ***