People don't have the time or the
attention span to read any more
words than necessary. You want your
readers to hear you out, understand
your message, and perhaps be
entertained, right? Here's a list of words to eliminate to help you write
more succinctly. 1. That It's superfluous most of the time.
Open any document you've got
drafted on your desktop, and find a
sentence with "that" in it. Read it out
loud. Now read it again without "that."
If the sentence works without it, delete it. Also? Don't use "that" when
you refer to people. "I have several
friends that live in the neighborhood."
No. No, you don't. You have friends
who . Not friends that. 2. Went I went to school. Or the store, or to
church, or to a conference, to Vegas,
wherever it is you're inclined to go.
Instead of "went," consider drove,
skated, walked, ran, flew. There are
any number of ways to move from here to there. Pick one. Don't be lazy
and miss the chance to add to your
story. 3. Honestly People use "honestly" to add
emphasis. The problem is, the minute
you tell your reader this particular
statement is honest, you've implied
the rest of your words were not.
#Awkward 4. Absolutely Adding this word to most sentences is
redundant. Something is either
necessary, or it isn't. Absolutely
necessary doesn't make it more
necessary. If you recommend an
essential course to your new employees, it's essential.
Coincidentally, the definition of
essential is absolutely necessary.
Chicken or egg, eh? 5. Very Accurate adjectives don't need
qualifiers. If you need to qualify it?
Replace it. "Very" is intended to
magnify a verb, an adjective, or
another adverb. What it does is
makes your statement less specific. If you're very happy? Be ecstatic. If
you're very sad, perhaps you're
melancholy or depressed.
Woebegone, even. Very sad is a lazy
way of making your point. Another
pitfall of using very as a modifier? It's subjective. Very cold and very tall
mean different things to different
people. Be specific. She's 6'3" and it's
13 degrees below freezing? These
make your story better while also
ensuring the reader understands the point you're making. 6. Really Unless you're a Valley Girl, visiting
from 1985, there's no need to use
"really" to modify an adjective. Or a
verb. Or an adverb. Pick a different
word to make your point. And never
repeat "really," or "very" for that matter. That's really, really bad
writing.
If you are visiting from 1985? Please
bring the birth certificate for my
Cabbage Patch Doll on your next visit.
Thanks. 7. Amazing The word means "causing great
surprise or sudden wonder." It's
synonymous with wonderful,
incredible, startling, marvelous,
astonishing, astounding, remarkable,
miraculous, surprising, mind-blowing, and staggering. You get the point,
right? It's everywhere. It's in
corporate slogans. It dominated the
Academy Awards acceptance
speeches. It's all over social media.
It's discussed in pre-game shows and post-game shows.
Newsflash: If everything is amazing ,
nothing is. 8. Always Absolutes lock the writer into a
position, sound conceited and close-
minded, and often open the door to
criticism regarding inaccuracies.
Always is rarely true. Unless you're
giving written commands or instruction, find another word. 9. Never See: Always. 10. Literally "Literally" means literal. Actually
happening as stated. Without
exaggeration. More often than not,
when the term is used, the writer
means "figuratively." Whatever is
happening is being described metaphorically. No one actually
"waits on pins and needles." How
uncomfortable would that be? 11. Just It's a filler word and it makes your
sentence weaker, not stronger.
Unless you're using it as a synonym
for equitable, fair, even-handed, or
impartial, don't use it at all. 12. Maybe This makes you sound uninformed,
unsure of the facts you're presenting.
Regardless of the topic, do the
legwork, be sure, write an informed
piece. The only thing you
communicate when you include these words is uncertainty. 13. Stuff This word is casual, generic even. It
serves as a placeholder for
something better. If the details of the
stuff aren't important enough to be
included in the piece? Don't reference
it at all. If you tell your reader to take your course because they'll learn a lot
of stuff ? They're likely to tell you to
stuff it. 14. Things See: Stuff. 15. Irregardless This doesn't mean what you think it
means, jefe . It means regardless. It
is
literally (see what I did there?)
defined as: regardless. Don't use it.
Save yourself the embarrassment. Whether you're ghostwriting for your
CEO, updating a corporate blog,
selling a product, or finishing your
doctoral thesis, you want to keep your
reader engaged. These 15 words are
a great place to start trimming the fat from your prose. Bonus? You’ll sound
smarter.
