There are never too many words to kick someone when they’re down. That’s certainly been the case this week when Gawker circulated a rejection e-mail from Shea Gunther to 900 applicants whose writing apparently wasn’t up to par for him. Instead of sending a blandly polite e-mail that told candidates their portfolios weren’t what he and his business partners were looking for, Gunther took it upon himself to give them some unsolicited advice on how to do better in sending their material out to prospective employers.

One ironic thing in his 3000+ word e-mail was that he emphasised keeping things short and sweet. In his infinite economy of language, he came up with 42 bullet points of items, some of which repeated themselves, while others were attempts to show his cleverness, as if he came up with the meaning of life. In pointing out the writing sins of others, he committed an eggregious one with his verbosity. Continue reading →