Talk:Weasel word

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Weasel word article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.

Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic.
New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help.

Article policies

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

Archives: 1: 12 months

This article has been viewed enough times in a single week to appear in the Top 25 Report. The week in which this happened:

August 28 to September 3, 2016 (11th)

Linguistics Mid‑importance

	Linguistics portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Linguistics, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of linguistics on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.LinguisticsWikipedia:WikiProject LinguisticsTemplate:WikiProject LinguisticsLinguistics
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Philosophy Low‑importance

	Philosophy portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Philosophy, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of content related to philosophy on Wikipedia. If you would like to support the project, please visit the project page, where you can get more details on how you can help, and where you can join the general discussion about philosophy content on Wikipedia.PhilosophyWikipedia:WikiProject PhilosophyTemplate:WikiProject PhilosophyPhilosophy
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Idea: Add examples embedded in text

It seems that this article could more clearly demonstrate the idea by adding examples of Weasel Words into it's text. See example edit below (could use more added but shows the idea - note that sections dealing with specific types demonstrate that type specifically). The change doesn't seem to stick when I edit it in so it looks like I need to propose it here first for approval?

Example can be seen in my post to Sandbox. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Wewyrasrtkuh (talk • contribs) 07:25, 12 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

My recent addition

I had written this intending it to be a new article and copy it into Wiki, without realizing that an article already existed. It would have been nice if someone had linked this in "Wikipedia: Avoid weasel terms" which I had checked. Somehow I hadn't spotted this "Weasel word" article in the Google search. Dieter Simon 01:11, 25 Apr 2004 (UTC)

The article would benefit from a measure of critique of the concept

The use of the passive voice in science has a very long history and can be traced to its use in proceedings and publications the Royal Society; it was used, legitimately in my opinion, to lend an air of detachment - the very ideal of the scientist - to experimental and other observations. It is still very widely used today in scientific writings. Imagine the horror of a scientific PhD thesis written in first person and active voice!

I think that the definition of "weasel words" could benefit from tightening. "Weasel words are intended to make a statement sound more legitimate and impressive." However, if there is genuine uncertainty the use of words that are indefinite is legitimate. There needs to be more emphasis in the article between genuine uncertainty, and word use that expresses this, and the use of phrases intended to deceive.

See: Uncertainty and Behaviour: Perceptions, Decisions and Actions in Business, Melanie E. Kreye, Routledge 2016 p. 36 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Urselius (talk • contribs)

Hola, ¿puedes crear un nuevo artículo traducido, traducido al español (weasel word -> palabra de comadreja). Por favor

El artículo weasel word http://en.wiki.x.io/wiki/Weasel_word es fascinante e importante. Como hispanohablante, realmente deseo que este artículo se traduzca al español ("palabra de comadreja") para que más personas puedan escribir y hablar correctamente, tanto en inglés como en español. ¿Puedes por favor hacerlo? Gracias y que tengan un buen día — Preceding unsigned comment added by Wikitest112 (talk • contribs) 06:45, 27 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]

El artículo debería ser "palabra equívoca". Esta es una traducción mucho más común. Alternativamente, la página podría ser simplemente "Weasel Word" como la página portuguesa. 75.137.4.217 (talk) 23:40, 10 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

More Citations needed tag

The lede section needs more citations, and the article as whole needs citations to authoritative grammatical and linguistic sources with respect to the examples contained therein. 98.178.191.34 (talk) 20:10, 15 July 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I've added a few citations, but I do think it could still use more.

(I'm also the same user as the one who made the previous edit on 101.100.142.43) Groot42 (talk) 22:07, 19 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]