Overgeneralising
This means making statements that are too simple or inaccurate. For example, using income
figures from the table below, a writer might claim:
People were much richer in 2009 than 20 years earlier.But this ignores inflation over the period. It is more accurate to say:
Average incomes doubled between 1989 and 2009.122 Part 2: Elements of Writing
Britain 1989 1999 2009
Inflation rate 7.8% 3.4% 1.9%
Interest rate 13.7% 5.5% 0.5%
Unemployment 6.1% 4.6% 7.8%
Average income £11,700 £19,000 £24,000
Average house price £61,500 £68,300 £160,000Comparison of some key UK economic indicators, 1989–2009
Some of the following sentences are accurate, but others are overgeneralised. Rewrite
the latter more accurately.
(a) The average price of houses more than doubled between 1999 and 2009.
(b) During the two decades 1989–2009, unemployment remained below 10%.
(c) 2009 was the worst year for savers.
(d) In relation to income, houses were cheaper in 1999 than 2009.
Practice exercises
Read the following text and write five generalisations about encouraging
entrepreneurship.
ENCOURAGING ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Many countries have attempted to copy the example of Silicon Valley in California
and tried to create their own entrepreneurial centres of new technology. However,
these attempts are rarely successful, partly because they ignore the reasons why the
original was so outstanding: being close to two first-class universities and a major
financial centre.