Comments on: #Infographic: Overused Words

By: Maia Dupes

Maia Dupes — Sat, 13 Jan 2018 00:49:19 +0000

This infographic reminded me of a book I read called “Nabokov’s Favorite Word is Mauve”. It combines writing with statistics to analyze different writing styles and patterns. One of the patterns is addresses is frequency of word use. While all the above mentioned words might be overused by people in general, I think we should keep in mind that we each probably exhibit over-use with different words. We should look at our own writing to determine what words we are most likely to gravitate towards. One of the statistics I found interesting from the book was that women are more likely to use the word “actually” than men. And while women are use more pronouns in their writing, men are more likely to exhibit a gender bias – using the pronoun “he” more than “she”.

By: Paul Stiles

Paul Stiles — Fri, 12 Jan 2018 22:17:24 +0000

I have the biggest difficulty with the word “like” and and filler words such as “that” and “really”. My solution to the “like” problem is by replacing it with the word “such as”, because it works in almost every situation. With “that” and “really”, I try to remove them from my papers unless I need the extra emphasis.

By: KC Cowan

KC Cowan — Thu, 11 Jan 2018 21:52:32 +0000

I can point out at least five of these words on the list that I am guilty of in my paper. The advice to use a word cloud is incredibly clever; I am going to use one during my final revision process. When writing a first draft, it’s easy to get caught up in repeating words, especially when you feel rushed or stressed. In order to see the paper with a fresh eye, it requires the author to take a step back for a few hours, come back, and try to read with a critical eye.

By: Gabriel Irigaray

Gabriel Irigaray — Thu, 11 Jan 2018 01:14:44 +0000

I am one who uses phrases like, in order to, or as to, which are unnecessary to the sentence and should be kept out to keep writing simple. I have found that trying to be aware of when you are writing/typing out certain phrases you are prone to overusing so the next time you try and fit it in your paper, you think about the phrase and how repetitive it is in your assignment. It is helpful to reread a paragraph after you have written it. Reading what you just wrote helps make catches you may not have noticed from a writers perspective, but as a reader it stands out. The words listed are also words I tend to use when I am stressing about meeting a length requirement. I think when we feel like we will not be able to meet the length, our papers can fill with overused words and hurt the overall presentation of the paper.

By: salem B Almarar

salem B Almarar — Wed, 10 Jan 2018 17:29:30 +0000

I remember in my my lab lecture, we were taught to use simple words like use instead of utilize. I am guilty of #12, #14 and #44 though.