Use of "said" (was Re: OOP: Disappointing)

[joanne0012]

No: HPFGUIDX 66606

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Stacy Forsythe <deadstop at w...> 
wrote:
> quoth joann0012:
> 
> >Recommending the overuse of "said" in lieu of the many useulf and
> >fundamental alternatives so that the book is "easier to read," especially 
> >for a
> >12-year-old, reminds me of the rationale that Levine, the editor at 
> >Scholatsic,
> >used when Bowdlerizing the title and contents of HP and the Philosopher's
> >Stone.
> 
> 
> I've actually read a number of writing/style manuals lately (I do volunteer 
> editing for a small publisher in my city) in which the use of "said" almost 
> all the time is recommended over the more flowery alternatives.  I know, I 
> thought the opposite as well, but the rationale is that "said" is an 
> invisible word that the reader's mind will just skip, whereas the more 
> specific verbs can serve as distractions from the overall reading 
> experience.  The manuals didn't say not to use such words at all, but 
> definitely recommended doing so sparingly, and falling back on "said" far 
> more often than not.
> 
> An observation, for what it's worth.
> 
> 
> Stacy Forsythe
> deadstop at w...

Alas, style manuals are like child-rearing manuals -- you can find one to 
support almost any strategy or technique.  In my 20 years of freelance writing 
and editing, I've come across every permutation; that's why I couched my 
critique as an opinion.  It's true that stretching for alternatives is distracting 
when one is simply reporting dialog, but I was particularly objecting to the 
said /adverb construction when there was a corresponding handy verb.