A "Do Not Use" List

Published by NISOD (National Institute for Staff & Organizational Development), Innovation Abstracts offers practical advice on a variety of teaching topics in articles written by faculty members from around the country.

This week, I ran across one written by an English instructor--Vincent Miholic--on a "do not" list he has created for his writing students: "'I am going to write about . . .' The Virus That Infects Language Art" (PDF). His list includes words and phrases which spread through the writing of novice writers like viruses. He advises his students to revise these words and phrases out of their finished compositions. Here's his list:

• In the world today, in today's world, in today's society (as opposed to the sixteenth century?)
• In my paper I am going to discuss, this paper will show (Just state the point; the reader knows it is "you" and "your" paper.)
• thing (ambiguous; Larson's cartoon inscription is cautiously, yet humorously instructive: "Well, actually, Doreen, I rather resent being called a 'swamp thing.' I prefer the term 'wetlands-challenged mutant.'")
• go, going, gone (weak verb) (Be precise. Doreen traveled, drove, walked, or attended.)
• got, get, getting (weak verb) (Doreen received, bought, or found.)
• come, came, coming (weak verb) (Doreen arrived, entered, grew.)
• went (weak verb) (See go, going gone) (Doreen left, sauntered, waltzed.)
• put, putting (weak verb) (Doreen placed, sat, positioned.)
• alot (misspelled) or a lot (Use many or much.)
• overreliance on passive starts (there is, there are, there was, there were) (Reconstruct with a concrete subject and an active verb; in the top ten of every stylist's rules: "Use active not passive voice.")
• any construct using this pattern: "The reason . . . is/ was because" (a truly wretched construction; equally repulsive "due to the fact that")
• any cliche/hackneyed metaphor (They will multiply like rabbits.)
• basic paragraph-to-paragraph transitions that overly rely on basic first, second, third, last . . . transitions
• needlessly using "then" in "If . . . then" statements; needlessly starting sentences with "then" or "also"
• contractions (more informal than formal) (By the way, "cannot" is the correct spelling for can't.) [I disagree with this one. --dsk]
  
• first person (narratives) (Most writers are expert with "I"; third person needs more practice.) [I disagree with this one. --dsk]
• first person preferred point of view, using "I" in every sentence unnecessary (See "I am going to discuss" above.) [I disagree with this one. --dsk]
• second person "you" (The declaration is usually misused and is unnecessary.)
• the ambiguous "it" (Don't use it if the referent is imprecise or if a more precise word exists.) [my added formating with boldface]
  

While I don't agree with every of his prohibited phrases (such as the contractions one), I find that his list agrees with what I read in the style books I most admire. Those of you looking for a list of forbidden words might start with this one. :-)

Later additions from dsk's list of forbidden words/phrases:

• empty qualifiers such as very, quite, rather, a lot. If you need to strengthen a phrase, do it by using a stronger word, not by adding very. Instead of saying "very big," say huge or gigantic or enormous or immense or gargantuan or . . . you catch my drift.
  
• hopefully, a commonly misused adverb. Most people mean to say something along the lines of, "I hope things go well," rather than, "Hopefully, things will go well" (a construction which makes the things hopeful in their behavior).
• in conclusion. While "in conclusion" and other phrases are good transitions for a speech, they're a little clunky in a written paper. Your readers can see that they are reaching the end of the paper, so you can just eliminate the phrase.