censor / censure
A censor is one who supervises conduct and morals by censoring objectionable material. Censure is strong disapproval or condemnation. For example, members of the Senate occasionally censure one of their colleagues for unethical conduct.
chair / chairperson / chairman / chairwoman
All four terms are suitable to indicate a presiding officer. To avoid sexual bias, however, use chair, or chairperson.
Ann Winters is the chair [or chairperson] of the Student Senate.
After Ben Summers resigned as chairman of the Student Senate, Ann Winters was elected the chairwoman.
(See also nonsexist language.)
choppy writing
Choppy writing is awkward prose that bumps along following the same pattern, usually subject-verb-object. You can avoid or revise choppy writing by varying your sentence patterns—combining short, related sentences, subordinating some sentences to others as dependent clauses, and eliminating unnecessary words to turn some clauses into phrases. (See also conciseness / wordiness, sentence types, and sentence variety.) Compare the following choppy paragraph and the revised version (as the author actually wrote it).
