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Yeah I had a writing teacher that informed me that you don't need to write "I think" in front of everything -- that is implicit because you are the author. "I
by chubot 12y ago
Yeah I had a writing teacher that informed me that you don't need to write "I think" in front of everything -- that is implicit because you are the author.
"I think" is only for the purposes of softening a statement, which is sometimes (but not always) what you want.
Another tip that I got as a high-schooler was to not use "very" or "extremely". That also "dilutes your prose" (his words, which were apt). That came up in a recent NY Times Book Review. If you put "very" in front of every adjective, you sound like a high school student who hasn't been corrected yet :)
- jtheory 12y agoRight, most of the time "I think" is a waste of space. I sometimes say explicitly when I'm on the fence about an idea ("Mild preference for A because __, though B would be ok"), or if I feel like my currently viewpoint isn't well-considered yet, to encourage others to read with a critical eye -- otherwise the polite default is often to go with the flow if there are no obvious or serious problems, and that can be bad.
- lmm 12y ago> Another tip that I got as a high-schooler was to not use "very" or "extremely". That also "dilutes your prose" (his words, which were apt). A generalized version of this is to never use an adjective/adverb/etc. unless it in some sense contradicts the thing it's applied to. There's no sense just trying to intensify the thing you've already written; the modifier should add new information.