case

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From: The Oxford Dictionary of American Usage and Style
Date: 20000101
Author:Bryan A. Garner

case. Arthur Quiller-Couch condemned this word as “Jargon's dearest child” ( On the Art of Writing , 1916). H. W. Fowler elaborated on the idea: “There is perhaps no single word so freely resorted to as a trouble-saver, and consequently responsible for so much flabby writing” ( MEU1 ).

The offending phrases include in case (better made if ), in cases in which (usually verbose for if , when , or whenever ), in the case of (usually best deleted or reduced to in ), and in every case (better made always , if possible). The word case especially leads to flabbiness when ...

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