Same story, different words

The first four paragraphs of two articles about the same subject:

American Forces Press Service: More Abu Ghraib Images Could Harm Troops, Official Says

Publicizing more images depicting alleged abuse of detainees at Iraqi’s Abu Ghraib prison could bring harm to U.S. servicemembers, a senior Defense Department official said here today.

The release of more Abu Ghraib images “could only further inflame and possibly incite unnecessary violence in the world and would endanger our military men and women that are serving in places around the world,” DoD spokesman Bryan Whitman told Pentagon reporters.

“The abuses at Abu Ghraib have been fully investigated,” Whitman said. “As you know, it’s been the policy of this department–it has been and continues to be–that all detainees in our custody will be treated humanely.”

Previously unpublished still and video images of alleged abuse of Iraqis held at Abu Ghraib prison were broadcast today on Australian television, according to media reports.

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation: Iraqi Ambassador Demands Answers to Latest Abu Ghraib Scandal

Iraq’s ambassador to the United Nations has told the United States to release any remaining photos it has of prisoners being abused at Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib prison.

New images of abuse have been broadcast around the world, sparking more anger over U.S. mistreatment of detainees.

The U.S. Defence Department suppressed many of the original photos because they might incite violence and could put U.S. soldiers in danger around the world. However, Ambassador Samir al-Sumidaie said it is in America’s best interests that all the photos be published.

“It can be argued that the best policy in these circumstances is to…come clean and be open and show everything that can be shown once and for all and get it over with, and deal with it publicly and make it clear to the world,” he said.

It’s all about word choice.

I saw the writing on the bathroom wall that this job would be tough

I was at a client site for a meeting and saw this sign:

It’s not good when even the custodians are verbose. (And no, I’m not in the habit of taking pictures in bathrooms; I happened to have my cell phone with me, which has a camera.)

It reminded me of my job during high school at an electronics retailer: I told the warehouse supervisor that we could use more toasters. He responded that he’d take care of it as soon as he finished “procuring the end cap.” His name was Dante, however, so I figured maybe he was entitled to a little poetic license.

Nope, she definitely can’t do that

On the Olympics last night, the announcer at the women’s halfpipe competition referred to one of the athletes’ chances of winning a medal by saying, “She can definitely podium.”

This gaffe is just part of the trend of sports commentators pushing for brevity at the expense of, well, making sense. Throughout this past football season, NFL announcers would say that a player was “out with a hamstring.” Since when did having a hamstring preclude one from being able to play football?

Freakonomics on the benefits of being specific

I just finished Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. On pages 73-75 they analyze the correlation of words in real-estate ads with the selling price of a house:

Listed below are ten terms commonly used in real-estate ads. Five of them have a strong positive correlation to the ultimate sales price and five have a strong negative correlation. Guess which are which:

• Fantastic
• Granite
• Spacious
• State-of-the-art
• !
• Corian
• Charming
• Maple
• Great Neighborhood
• Gourmet

Can you discern which five terms correlated to a higher sales price and which five correlated to a lower one?

The answer: granite, state-of-the-art, Corona, maple, and gourmet fetch higher sales prices, whereas fantastic, spacious, !, charming, and great neighborhood correlate to the lower ones.

What do those terms have in common? The ones that lead to higher prices are specific–there is no doubt about what most of those phrases mean. As for the lower-priced ones, well “!” is subject to a lot of interpretation.

Whether it’s in a real-estate ad, a resume, or a proposal, specificity pays.