4 ms·
This is one of the most pernicious pieces of cargo-cult writing advice that gets smeared all over the internet. When writing, you should think carefully about
by Planktonne 4y ago
This is one of the most pernicious pieces of cargo-cult writing advice that gets smeared all over the internet.
When writing, you should think carefully about your word choice, and adapt it for your audience, context, intended effect, etc.
"Lose the very" is the exact opposite of thinking carefully. It ignores all the subtle shades of meaning that different words bring. Almost no words have direct swap-in synonyms.
If you follow this advice, you end up with a mess of incoherent verbiage that (probably) says something very different to what was intended.
- zeroxp 4y agoWhen you say very different, you could have just said skittish. "It's skittish from what you intended". Isn't that much better?
- johnpublic 4y agoactually, the website says "very different = distinct". So "it's distinct from what you intended." Which I actually prefer.
- denton-scratch 4y agoNot the same. "Distinct from X" means that it can be distinguished from X; "very different from X" means that it's hard to mistake it for X.