Dear Editor,
Letters in the press should be brief and to the point. It is said, ‘Brevity is the soul of wit.’ Consequently, letters to the editor should be rather terse in style to capture the reader’s attention and hold it to the very end.
The extremely long and humdrum letters are often those of a political or unnecessarily critical type. Such letters hardly do credit to the level of formal education which ought to be sustained in our established newspapers.
To secure conciseness, writers need to avoid elementary errors of tautology, pleonasm and circumlocution. Moreover, good English depends on the mechanics of the language, which is reflected in the use of simple, compound and complex sentences, allowing for variety and style.
I had the good fortune of studying two foreign languages at the Advanced level and learnt that the same or similar rules do apply as in English. These principles intelligently applied would undoubtedly facilitate the expression of thought and ideas.
Let us always try and be brief. I concede we do not know it all. Trying to write carefully and accurately will make for good reading.
Yours faithfully,
Autry A Fernandes
