Dear Geist,

repeat dogs, dogs, dogs all through it, to avoid boring repetition. I went with homeless hounds, feral fidos, primitive pooches, etc.—a practice I learned as a journalism student, reinforced over ten years—and the editor changed them all back to “dogs.” It's my first eco article and the deadline was looming so I let it go. But it's bugging me. Any insights?

Dear Rosa,

having morphed into a compliment some years after “elegant variation” came into use. Why is it frowned on? Because no two words for a thing have exactly the same meaning or connotation, so the practice tends to confuse readers and impede reading—the opposite of what writers and editors strive for.

, once called the practice “the elongated yellow-fruit school of writing,” invoking an elegant variation of “banana.” His examples included “the succulent goober” (for peanut) and “the numbered spheroids” (for billiard balls).