3 Words That Weaken Your Writing.
Some words are kryptonite to writers.
A woman I know doesn’t know the difference between there & they’re.
Last summer she said her kids are excited because there going to ride horses. Not “they’re” going horseback riding. There going…
I don’t think she realizes there’s a third spelling, either. There’s no there, they’re and their in her vocabulary.
It’s just there, there and there. lol.
No point correcting her. First, it doesn’t stick. Second, she doesn’t care.
She’ll say “Did you know what I meant? Yah. So whadever. Shut up.”
You can tell she’s offended. As if the person pointing it out is the problem. She’d probably call her correctors pedantic if she knew what that meant. Hahaha. Sorry. lol.
Here’s the thing.
She used to run a home based event business. She’d post things like this on Facebook:
Come out to are summer event. It’s gunna be grate. Bring all you’re family. Admission is 5 bux.
Then she had to get a job. Because the economy sux. It killed her business.
You have to roll your eyes.
Thank God she doesn’t write for a living.
Writers make dumb mistakes, too
A long time ago, I wrote about 26 words that weaken your writing. Some people really enjoyed it. Other people got mad and said it was too many to remember. lol. I guess they saw themselves somewhere in that list.
“Yah. So whadever. Shut up.”
The point wasn’t to remember the whole list.
It was to find the dragons that bellow your name. Because we all have one or two mistakes we make over and over. Those are our dragons.
For me, it’s apostrophes. Suckers sneak in when I’m not looking and I have to go back and find the ones that don’t belong. Like its and it’s. Geebus. It’s not that I don’t “know” — it’s that those are my habitual mistakes.
Keyboard gremlins. We all have them.
One time I was editing a book and the author used “for his/her part” so often it started to get funny. The book was horror, but I was laughing. I couldn’t even get creeped out by the face in the window because:
Bob, for his part… Sue, for her part… Bill, for his part…
Eventually I used word replace to count them. Hundreds of times. In one book. When I pointed it out, the author got a little mad at me. lol.
It’s an uncommon twitch. A tiny peccadillo, as far as those go. But it interrupted the flow of reading. That’s not small.
Know what the most common mistakes writers make are? Weak words.
3 Words That Weaken Your Writing.
Weak words aren’t mistakes. Not like there, there and there. lol
They’re more like Superman’s kryptonite. The zap your power. Kill the strength of your prose.
They do is rob your words of impact and make your sentence feel weaker than if you didn’t use them. Here. I show…
Weak word #1: To
Such a simple little word, right? And there’s time you “do” need to use it. Words are tricky. It’s knowing when you “don’t” need to use one that matters.
I’m going to the store — that’s the right time to use “to.” But if you use it before an action, it weakens the action. Here’s an example:
— I help creatives to build resilience. —I help creatives build resilience!
Omit needless words — [William Strunk, Jr.]
Weak word #2: That
Much like “to” the word isn’t the problem. It’s in how you use it. If you’re saying “what is that?” — sure, you kind of need the word that. But in a lot of cases, when you delete “that” your sentence becomes more powerful.
— He swore that he would never cheat again — He swore he would never cheat again
“Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words.” — Mark Twain
Weak word #3: Very
In literary jargon, “very” is a qualifier that tells you something about the word behind it. What it tells you is you used the wrong word. lol.
— The odds are very good — The odds are great!
See what I mean? If you have to say “very ___” then ___is the wrong word.
— Your kid isn’t “very smart” she’s brilliant. Or gifted. Smart as a whip — That pie isn’t “very good,” it’s excellent. Or delicious. — Your doggie isn’t “very little,” he’s teeny or tiny or miniature — You aren’t “very hungry,” you’re famished.
See what I mean? And you can even step it up a little. Instead of saying you’re very hungry, or famished, you could say your stomach is growling like a bear, or you’re so hungry you could eat a horse.
Very = you need a better word.
“Substitute ‘damn’ every time you’re inclined to write ‘very’; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.” — Mark Twain
In summary: Control F is your friend!
When you finish writing a piece, press Control+F. Search for those three.
To. That. Very.
Make sure you haven’t used them in the weak ways above.
And if you have? Read the sentence out loud before you change it. Then make the change and read it out loud again. You will see the difference.
That’s a promise. :)
If the reader is lost, it’s usually because the writer hasn’t been careful enough. A clear sentence is no accident. — William Zinsser, On Writing Well
