The "L" Word (Lazy) and Armchair Quarterbacking

[Henry]

Well, as I posted upthread, when I Google "lazy writing" I get plenty of links (including to mainstream critical journals like the New Yorker) that use it in the standard sense.

It's not an idiosyncratic usage.

True, but frequent use doesn’t make it more effective. It just means more critics like to cut corners when offering constructive criticism, or want to sound superior but come off sounding like jerks, whether they intend to or not.

 

[pemerton]

True, but frequent use doesn’t make it more effective. It just means more critics like to cut corners when offering constructive criticism, or want to sound superior but come off sounding like jerks, whether they intend to or not.

Just calling someone’s work “lazy” tells us even more about the lack of eloquence in the critique; it’s both too concise to be meaningful, and more often than not puts people on the defensive needlessly. Might as well just stick with a “meh” and a frown emoji, it would be more entertaining and offer as much constructive weight. At least “cliched” or “meandering” offers more detail on what one finds wrong.

I guess I don't agree that "lazy" carries so little information.

I Googled "lazy writing" new yorker and second from the top was an essay in the Washington Post attacking lazy writing in the NYT:

I thought [a particular event] would have made editors think twice about publishing lazy writing about Africa that paints the continent as a dark, primitive and dangerous place.​

"Lazy writing" resorts to cliches, stereotypes, received opinions and shortcuts and so avoids the need to establish and/or manage complexity.

 

[MarkB]

I guess I don't agree that "lazy" carries so little information.

I Googled "lazy writing" new yorker and second from the top was an essay in the Washington Post attacking lazy writing in the NYT:

I thought [a particular event] would have made editors think twice about publishing lazy writing about Africa that paints the continent as a dark, primitive and dangerous place.​

"Lazy writing" resorts to cliches, stereotypes, received opinions and shortcuts and so avoids the need to establish and/or manage complexity.

Which, ironically, means that the term "lazy writing" is in itself lazy writing, as it falls foul of all of those elements.