Too many words, too few ideas

A writers group that I am loosely affiliated with posted this week a list of the most overused expressions in writing. Most of these words could be eliminated from any text without great detriment; the cuts would add crispness to a story or paragraph.



I can’t reprint them all without the writer’s permission, but I’ll post a few – just so you can laugh out loud at how often you’ve found them liberally sprinkled throughout the posts below. I read through posts with my finger poised on the backspace key, but I am not careful. After I’m done, oftentimes, here’s what remains:



actually

all of (replace with "all")

apparently

as it were

as you know

at an early date (replace with "soon")

at the present time or this time or this point in time (replace with "now")

at the same time as (replace with "while")

basically

be in a position to (replace with "can")

completely

despite the fact that (replace with "despite")

due to the fact that (replace with "because")

during the time that (replace with "while")

essentially

extremely

first of all (replace with "first")

for the purpose of (replace with "for")

generally

etc.



I make closet editors happy by feeding their ingrained sense of superiority.