Elegant Variation

The term elegant variation was coined by the English language stylist H.W. Fowler. What does this term mean? In elegant variation, the writer tries to be elegant by varying the words used to convey a single idea.

The economist D.N. McCloskey provides a detailed description of this term and why it is problematic for writers and readers.

Elegant Variation uses many words to mean one thing, with the result that in the end the reader, and even the writer, don’t quite know what is being talked about. A paper on economic development used in two pages all these: “industrialization,” “growing structural differentiation,” “economic and social development,” “social and economic development,” “development,” “economic growth,” “growth,” and “revolutionized means of production.” With some effort, you can see in context that they all meant about the same thing. The writer simply liked the sound of the differences.

Some people who write this way mistake the purpose of writing, believing it to be an occasion for display of many synonyms that have the same meaning.   As McCloskey makes clear, elegant variation can make writing look impressive, but it is not reader friendly. If your goal is to make your readers understand you, then you should avoid this technique.