Never EVER Use These Words When You Write! – My Experience

Hi, I am writing and rewriting as Akp51v for a while. And some words or phrases keep driving me crazy. To alert my fellow writers, readers and editors, let me enlist all those nightmares of words. A bit of discloser might help here: I used to be a Bookworm or 100 background tabs person. So, you know that I am not joking at all.

Again, this is piece is my serious suffering, during my personal journey as a writer. Or, as a Rewriter. (get the hint)

The first part will include the problematic words and phrases. Reduce using them. In an ideal world, everyone could avoid them. After this part, I will share my theories about why the Academic Overtone might hurt your content.

Here we go.

Which Words To Erase While Editing Without Mercy – By Akp51v

Procure.

You know that ‘buy’ or ‘get’ are sweet short words, right?

Should be able to.

May we replace this with ‘can’?

In order to do so.

Let’s just delete it. You can use ‘So’ or ‘Thus’ to say something similar. Also, To do this / ‘For this’ are good options. I think I would trust my readers. They can guess what two sentences in a series are all about. And you could even use ‘Then’ with a comma.

Despite of X.

Here, X is ‘This’ in the best-case scenario. But in the worst-case scenario, X is a short repetition of what you wrote a few seconds ago. Kindly avoid this. You can use ‘Still’ or ‘Yet’ to send a similar signal.

There is / are (be).

I am okay with a few ‘There (be)’ forms. But if you find too many ‘There (be)’, it is time to rewrite this part. In this line itself, I have used ‘But if you find’ because I was about to use ‘There (be)’. For clarity, (be) represents the verbs in continuous tenses. E.g. There ‘was / were / are / is’, etc.

Verb + Looking For / Searching For / Waiting For

‘Want’ is a great word. Drop the ‘are looking for X’ type of sentences. Because you can say, “We want X.” Do you see now? So much saving of space.

Has Ability To / Is Capable Of

You can use the word “Can” to simplify your sentence.

Very / Sometimes

You should not abandon them. But ask yourself if you can express ideas without those two words. E.g., Very Big (Massive or Huge), Sometimes, I wonder ( I wonder ).

Being Made Available / Faster / X

No need of using the Being Made phrase. Because it is Passive Voice, no matter how you use it. E.g., Being made fun of is bad ( Others making fun of you / ridiculing you is bad. ), it is being made available ( it is available ).

Are Provided X

Use ‘Get’ in your sentence. E.g., You are provided with food and shelter ( You get food and shelter ).

Alternatively

You have the word ‘Also’ and it is crisp.

You Are Required To

Rewrite it as ‘You need to’ or ‘You must’.

Have Been Known To

Avoid something like this. So, you could use the verb after this part directly.

Restart X Again

Either use ‘Start X Again’ or ‘Restart X’. Because Restarting means starting it again anyways. So, you don’t need the additional Again word.

‘It is therefore advised all the users to’

Do you hate humanity? No? Then, why would anyone want to use this phrase? This single phrase forced me to question my purpose in life. Go and tell the users what your tip is all about. Avoid such abomination at any cost.

Adjective + In Nature

Drop the ‘in nature’ part. The entire purpose of using an adjective is to describe the properties. So, this phrase is redundant (in nature).

Should however be practiced

No comments. This is too much. Because it has ‘however’ in it. Then, you see that passive voice. ‘Be practiced’ huh? Now, using the word ‘should’ is nice for formal, journalistic, scholarly or neutral works. Else, use ‘must’ to enforce the urgency. Or, order the user as an instruction. In short, begin your sentence with a verb.

Are Related To

If suitable, use ‘belong’ and its tense forms for replacing this formality.

The reason for this is that

Replace it with “Because” as you can guess why.

You must have the knowledge of

The words like “Learn” or Know could help you. But you should remember to test the context.

Another advantage that it has over X

Use “Compared to” if mentioning a noun X is necessary. Else, a simple “Also” might be enough. You can mention the target of comparison in the latter sentences.

To be used for

Instead, you can use “for” on its own. After all, it is a good preposition to indicate utility.

Most suitable / Most appropriate

Are you trying to say “Best” something? Then, say Best instead of Most Suitable or Most Appropriate.

Make use of

Or, you could say use directly.

Would be required to

This is a bit tricky. Because you could use “need to” or must instead of this phrase. But read the new sentence to check its suitability. Also, the following two use cases are different.

1. It would be required to. ( You / It must )
2. You would be required to. ( You might need to )
3. It would require you to. ( It needs you to )
4. You would require it to. ( You might want it to )

When in doubt, rewrite the complete sentence afresh. And in many cases, if you replace “Would be” with “might,” this does not change the meaning by a huge margin.

The Endnote by Akp51v

I would add more phrases and simplifications alternatives to this post. So, you should bookmark it for your revisits. And now, you are aware that your drafts need editing. Also, you must not avoid using them completely. Because sometimes, you should trust your readers with complex sentences.

After all, over-simplification might reduce the seriousness in some cases. No, this point has nothing to do with the content dumping ideology. Someday, I would share with you how the adverbs can add more drama. E.g., using your voice in a creative way, your YouTube narration can use the adverbs for special effects.

Till then, remember this content writer for your future projects.