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Avoiding the anguish of confusable words

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From: Chicago Sun-Times
Date: 19880814
Author:James J. Kilpatrick

In his hilarious essay on the literary offenses of James Fenimore Cooper, Mark Twain laid down 18 rules that govern the literary art. This was his Rule 13: "Use the right word, not its second cousin."

Most of Twain's other rules apply to the writing of fiction, which is off my beat, but all of them are sound. It is Rule 13 - more accurately, the violation of Rule 13 - that causes so much anguish. Now two reference books have come to hand that will help us in our quest for the right word.

Both works come from Facts on File. The first is The Dictionary of Confusable Words, by the ...

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