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Thursday, September 29, 2011

Taking Another Look at “Words of Mass Reduction” « City School Stories

Taking Another Look at “Words of Mass Reduction” « City School Stories:

Taking Another Look at “Words of Mass Reduction”

Reflections of an Author

Originally posted by Frank Murphy, February 8, 2011

“Words of Mass Reduction”

In a post recently published on the Notebook blog, I stated my objection to the use of the phrase “70,000 Vacant Seats” in order to describe the amount of unused space in Philadelphia Public Schools. I took exception to this descriptor because I consider it to be an example of what I call “Words of Mass Reduction” or a “ WMR” for short.

What exactly is a “WMR”? It is a concise and powerful word bomb that is employed by those who are intent