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20 03, 2017

44 Words That Can Weasel into Writing

By |2017-03-03T08:18:06-06:00March 20th, 2017|Make Me Think Monday, Writing Craft|0 Comments

Writing’s hard work. Ask any writer. Good writing is harder. Sometimes weasel words can slip in.

Weasel words are “favorite” words that pop up when a writer is being lazy or rushing.

I first heard the term in a workshop with Margie Lawson. She expanded weasel words to include phrases, overused word, throw-away words, clichés and opinion words that might draw a reader from the story.

Her solution is to keep a personal weasel word list for every manuscript and when you do the edits, remove the weasels.

Grammarly created this infographic of frequently overused words to help writers eradicate such words. Margie and I would call it a weasel word list.

44 Overused Words & Phrases To Be Aware Of (Infographic)
Source: www.grammarcheck.net

30 11, 2016

Doing What’s Needful

By |2016-11-21T08:25:41-06:00November 30th, 2016|Wednesday Words of Wisdom|2 Comments

do-the-needfulWe’ve finished a month of focus on thankfulness. When I saw this graphic on the Grammarly blog, I thought doing the needful would be an excellent way to end the month.

This wording might not be the phrasing we would use in the U.S. More likely, we’d say something like Please do what I asked.

Grammarly.com offers a full discussion of the phrase’s origin on their blog.

Isn’t doing what needs to be done a wonderful guideline for our actions year round?

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