very

Be Very Interesting: Avoid ‘Very’

The word very is overused, as I mentioned previously. There are so many other intensifiers (adverbs to make adjectives and verbs stronger) and mitigators (adverbs to make adjectives and verbs weaker) that can make your English sound far more interesting. You are not a boring person in your native language, so don’t sound boring in … [Read more…]

Edit Overused Words in Your Writing

When students ask me how to improve their writing the first thing I tell them is to read more and copy the style. After that, I usually tell them to change ‘good’/’better’/’best’ a few times and delete or change ‘very’. Why? They are overused and – most of the time – not precise enough. Is … [Read more…]