The Ways Weasels Speak

by Peter M.

Weasel Words: The Art of Saying What You Don't Mean is not about communicating with rodents. It is not a book that will show you how to deceive people. It is not even a book on how to use weasel words. It is a book about what weasel words are. It describes how they are used in various areas, from advertising to politics to education to even science, as well as their impact on language. This book will not help you as a writer if you are trying to find ways to deceive your readers, but it will help you as a person if you are trying to identify these weasel words.

The book describes a weasel word as being language that used to make statements that are technically true, but are pretty much a lie. It can take the form of misleading terms, trying to put a bad thing in good light, saying something that sounds in favor of one side, but leaves needs no commitment to it, or even just being jargony so that others do not have any idea what you are saying. Throughout the book, the author, Mario Pei, gives examples of how people use language like this, the major ones being advertising and politics. When he shows issues like these though, he shows it interestingly with a bit of humor thrown in here and there.

Towards the end of the book, he begins to talk about why people use weasel words. Some, like advertisers and politicians, purposefully use them to either mislead people, or at least put a more positive spin what they are offering to people, in order to get them to buy what they are selling. We do the same things in our everyday life, whether we are conscious of it or not to put ourselves in a better light, for instance, on every resume or college application ever, we put forward everything positive about us and do not provide a very extensive list of our failures. As writers, we tend to also do this, putting forth all the information that proves we are right while sweeping information that does not under the rug. In the book, he openly admits that he has seen this in his own writing, citing some criticism that he received even on an essay on weasel words that he was doing this a bit. If a writer wants to be honest with his reader, he should make sure he is not using weasel words in his writing.

Overall, I found the book to be interesting. I found the linguistic aspect of it interesting as well as examples that he gave of how these weasel words are used in the world around us. Although some of the examples are a bit dated, since the book was written in 1978, I was still able to understand what he was showing through them and even identify some modern examples. To anyone who is interest in language, anyone interested in how people use communicate, or any writer who wants to be frank and honest with their readers, I would suggest this book because it will teach you how identify weasel words. To anyone who has no interest in language whatsoever, does not care if they about being truthful with their readers, or is just a boring person, I would suggest looking elsewhere.