Brevity defeats itself when it omits needed explanation or substance

Evidence

Three kinds of brevity defeat their purpose. One is the sort called telegraphic, where articles “a” and “the” and even words are omitted. I have just looked at an expensively executed bronze plaque, otherwise satisfactory, which was ruined by this bad writing and bad taste. Another is the kind where, in striving for brevity, the sign fails to convey an adequate message. Much as we desire to avoid unnecessary wordage, reasonable latitude in length must be allowed. The third case is really an error in preliminary thinking, rather than in composition. A sign may include a statement that requires an explanation, but for brevity’s sake the explanation is omitted. An illustration of this I saw at Montezuma Castle. A sign there says that “Montezuma is a misnomer.” (“Misnomer” is a fancy word for “wrongly named.” It is not in common use.) It is true that Montezuma the Aztec had nothing to do with this area, but you here read something that is meaningless unless explained. The answer probably is that it need not have been mentioned at all. It is the sort of information that may well fit into a folder or handbook, where it can be properly handled. — Freeman Tilden, Interpreting Our Heritage, 410

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Standing visitors will not read long or all-caps interpretive text — Freeman Tilden, Interpreting Our Heritage, 408; Open-ended theories inviting unlimited added conditions become unfalsifiable and impractical; Fallacies in missing disjuncts stem from omitting alternative possibilities — Ruggero J. Aldisert, Agatha D. Aldisert, Logic for Lawyers- A Guide to Clear…, 976 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Open-ended theories inviting unlimited added conditions become unfalsifiable and impractical #exemplifies (0.85)
• Fallacies in missing disjuncts stem from omitting alternative possibilities #exemplifies (0.78) — Ruggero J. Aldisert, Agatha D. Aldisert, Logic for Lawyers- A Guide to Clear…, 976
• Polemical texts selectively omit events that contradict their argument #exemplifies (0.75) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 531