Very

There is one word that I've constantly have to remind myself not to use in my writing. One word that people use all the time, a word that I use in my everyday speech so often that I've had difficulty entirely cutting it out of my writing.

That word is "very".

I don't know who said this, and I wish that I did, because it's a perfect explanation of why very shouldn't be used in writing.

It's a qualifier, you see, and therefore doesn't need to be used. It changes the meaning of the word after it (i.e. very tired changes the meaning of tired, so it now means exhausted).

So if it changes the meaning of the following word, why do we even use these words?

I believe it's because many of us have forgotten to use our dictionaries. We've grown so accustomed to the way that we speak that it begins to be echoed in the way that we write. This, my friends, is a serious problem.

The solution, you ask?

Well that's easy. (easy to say, at least: perhaps not so easy to put into action)

If we're going to write like professionals, to use the appropriate words and stop using things like "very", we have to start speaking better English. If we don't speak it, it only becomes that much more difficult to put into our writing.

If we stop saying "very" and start saying the words that we mean (morose, exhausted, exuberant, etc.) then we won't even have the desire to use "very" in our writing.

The answer is just that simple. And also that difficult.

Ever tried changing the way you speak? I'll tell you, it's no easy feat.

One might even say it was very difficult. *ahem* I mean, challenging. It was challenging.

[you can do it]

{RD}