Have you ever stopped to analyse which words you’re guilty of using too often?
Chapter 3 was long, making Tuesday a very long day. I had that chapter almost down to size, then Zotero formatted the chapter bibliography and added a few hundred words back. Arghh!
But that wasn’t the worst of it. I was unimpressed by the finished chapter. So on Wednesday morning, when I had planned to start Chapter 4, I spent it going back over Chapter 3 again. The good news is, I am getting it trimmed down some more, and on re-reading it, there are plenty of bits that I do like – even bits where I can say, ‘that’s GOOD’. So, things aren’t so bad, despite having a headache and being slightly behind schedule!
But having spent Wednesday afternoon on Chapter 4, I didn’t seem to have cut out much at all – it was all pretty ‘lean’! Maybe another 3 hours would see some more progress …
And I decided I’d better check if I was overusing any common words. How does your writing compare? Do you find this an issue? Some of mine:-
- Indeed
- Nonetheless
- Repertoire
- Significance
- Significant
- Then
- Very
- Whilst
- (Strangely enough, ‘moreover’ and ‘furthermore’ hardly make an appearance – phew!)
Karen McAulay, Musicologist 