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    Thin End o F The Wedge: The Penguin Guide To Plain English

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    Ilias
    The document discusses the proper usage of common idiomatic expressions in writing. It analyzes three expressions - "on the back of", "thin end of the wedge", and "watch like a hawk". For each one, it explains the original meaning and provides examples of incorrect or confusing usage that distorts or loses the intended meaning. The overall message is that idioms should be used carefully and not in a way that breaks from their original sense or violates grammar.

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    Thin End o F The Wedge: The Penguin Guide To Plain English

    Uploaded by

    Ilias
    36 views1 page
    The document discusses the proper usage of common idiomatic expressions in writing. It analyzes three expressions - "on the back of", "thin end of the wedge", and "watch like a hawk". For each one, it explains the original meaning and provides examples of incorrect or confusing usage that distorts or loses the intended meaning. The overall message is that idioms should be used carefully and not in a way that breaks from their original sense or violates grammar.

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    ABC Part 103

    Original Title

    ABC Part 103

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    The document discusses the proper usage of common idiomatic expressions in writing. It analyzes three expressions - "on the back of", "thin end of the wedge", and "watch like a hawk". For each one, it explains the original meaning and provides examples of incorrect or confusing usage that distorts or loses the intended meaning. The overall message is that idioms should be used carefully and not in a way that breaks from their original sense or violates grammar.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    36 views1 page

    Thin End o F The Wedge: The Penguin Guide To Plain English

    Uploaded by

    Ilias
    The document discusses the proper usage of common idiomatic expressions in writing. It analyzes three expressions - "on the back of", "thin end of the wedge", and "watch like a hawk". For each one, it explains the original meaning and provides examples of incorrect or confusing usage that distorts or loses the intended meaning. The overall message is that idioms should be used carefully and not in a way that breaks from their original sense or violates grammar.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    The Penguin Guide to Plain English

    To speak of pushing through a measure on the back o f some forceful


    but not necessarily wholly relevant argum ent is an effective way of
    making the point desired. But the effect is destroyed, indeed swamped
    in hum our, by the readers need to picture first the striking of a sensitive
    chord. The struggle to conceive of something pushed through on the
    back o f this chord dissolves in farce.
    thin end o f the wedge
    It is not a good idea to mutilate colourful idiomatic expressions. A
    w edge is something solid shaped like a letter V, w hich can easily be
    inserted into a narrow space at the thin end. W e speak o f the thin end
    o f the w edge to define something seemingly slight which, if pushed
    further, will turn into something unw anted or threatening. It is one o f
    those expressions w hich perfectly fits the case w here the only alternative
    w ould be a clumsy circumlocution. Such expressions are valuable, and
    should not be lightly exploited.
    This is the end of the wedge for our town and the problem needs to be
    stamped on.
    Unless the wedge is introduced from the thin end, we may point out,
    the threat that it represents w ould decrease rather than increase. We cant
    have the idiomatic wedge divested of its thin end. Moreover, though
    subversive movements perhaps need to be stamped o n , problems do
    not call for that treatment.
    watch like a hawk
    One danger is that such established images as this one may float from the
    m outh so automatically that the demands o f grammar, and even of
    com m on sense, are ignored. We readily say that some close observer
    watches like a hawk, but on BBC Radio 4 an em inent public figure
    declared:
    Prescribing practice should be watched like a hawk.
    To speak o f being watched like a hawk seems to put the leg into the
    w rong boot.
    the winning hand
    Here is another expression w hich is best kept for reference to hum an
    beings. To speak o f someone having the w inning hand in some testing

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