Editorial Crutches

Everyone has them - the overuse of “despite” to single out a point of difference, relying on “however” to get you through a sentence, the ubiquitous “meanwhile” that lets you slip effortlessly into a new paragraph. And each, used sparingly, is fine. But they are, in any case, editorial crutches, the things you depend on for support. It’s worth identifying your editorial crutches not so you can avoid using them entirely, but so you can go back during the editing process and question their necessity. After all, your writing should be robust enough, and clear and energetic and dynamic enough, to stand on its own without the aid of such devices. In fact, my editorial crutch is “in fact.” I use it willy-nilly as I write and then go back and determine in each case if it’s essential for the sake of clarity or precision. If it's not absolutely necessary, I delete it. (I tried to fight using it altogether as I wrote but found thinking about it too much was too hard. As the writer Elaine May, who helped write the movie "Tootsie," once said, "When you start, you think you can do anything. And then you start to get a little tired.") Anyhow, I end up deleting most of them. You’ll find that if you too review your work, most of these crutches can be deleted. You won’t fall down, and, in fact, neither will your text.

Note: I'm curious to know if you think you have editorial crutches, and what they are.

Comments

[Hazel]

Nevertheless writers who are not as disciplined as you have to have a crutch. Meanwhile, I will continue to use all the crutches I can find. Unfortunately, you, and others, keep telling me that I must not over-use any word or phrase or my writing will become dull. Maybe it already is?

[Greg]

Mine is "however". I can use it four times in one paragraph and not even notice.

Robert J Sawyer wrote once that you should always do a search-and-destroy for "very" and words ending in "ly" on the basis that there are probably more descriptive words to use in their place.

[Maddie Clark]

I have an editorial crutch -- I love semicolons. After looking over a draft, I'm amazed to find that my writing includes sentence after sentence with this punctuation mark, as if I have trouble committing to a period.

[Michael Oryl]

I certainly have several crutches. Without looking at my latest reviews, I would have say my worst offender is likely the popular "however." "Though" is also a particularly bad one for me. Over the past 6 months I've tried to cut back on those and similar crutches with some, but not enough, success.

[Sara]

I always use "in order to" - I'm trying to get rid of the "in order" part, but it's hard!

[Leslie Leite]

Sadly, I was unaware that I even had editorial crutches until I read your post. Then, of course, I found my last few bits of writing peppered with despite, however, and "even so." Darn.

[Andrew Favreau]

I'm a big fan of using the word "furthermore" when creating a laundry list of tasks or ideas requiring itemization – usually in an email. The word also appears in first drafts of press releases, especially when I need to connect one idea between two paragraphs, and I’ve found that removing this “crutch” makes the text stronger and powerful.

[Mike Keliher]

First off, Maddie, as long as you're using it properly, I'm glad to see that someone else appreciates and uses the semicolon. It's an underappreciated little thing.

I think my biggest editorial crutch is something like a "run-on paragraph." I quite frequently start sentences with conjunctions like "and" or "but." I know it's not a good habit, and it usually only happens in quick e-mails. But just like this sentence, when I'm writing like I'm thinking or as I'd speak, I start with conjunctions too often. And that's bad.

[Veronica Brown]

While I probably use more crutches than I'd like to admit, I'm definitely an "in fact" abuser.

Greg - your reference to eradicating "very" from one's writing is in line with one of my favorite Mark Twain quotes: Substitute "damn" every time you're inclined to write "very;" your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.

[Dan Santow]

Hazel, I don’t think you give yourself enough credit. If you recognize you have these crutches (we all do) then you’re probably able to do something about them, even if it’s my primitive method of deleting them after you use them.

Greg, the “ly” thing is about adverbs, which some people say you should never use. I’m too weak to completely forgo a part of speech forever. I also don’t think there’s anything wrong with adverbs necessarily. As for the word “very,” see Veronica’s comment below.

Maddie, semicolons? I see people using them a lot more than they should – and often wrongly, in lieu of commas. I apologize in advance for doing this (and appearing more self-involved than I am) but I did write about semicolons a few weeks ago, so check it out if you haven’t already (http://wordwise.typepad.com/blog/2007/02/semicolonoscopy.html).

Michael, those are both really common (“however” and “though”). I’m not suggesting to never use them – the key is to review your work and delete them when you can.

Sara, “in order to” is one of my top-1,000 peeves. I’ve complete brainwashed my colleague Chris and together we are on a two-man crusade to eradicate the phrase from the face of the earth. We are constantly changing “in order to” to plain-Jane “to.”

Leslie, despite finally and painfully realizing that “despite” is your crutch, I’m glad you did. It’s a good word, actually, but like everything, used in moderation.

Andrew, I’m glad you use and then lose “furthermore.” It reminds me of words like “ergo” – words we know but in all honesty, should never use!

Mike, on the one hand you’re right that starting too many sentences with conjunctions can get old fast, but it is a good way to start some sentences, especially in casual writing. I’m actually kind of a proponent of it.

Veronica, are you trying to butter me up by tossing around clever Oscar Wilde quotes? Anyhow, that’s fantastic. Thank you for sending!

[Bobbi]

Hi, my name is Bobbi and my crutch is "for example."

Dan, I love your blog and am a particular fan of the Slash and Burn post.

[Nick]

I'm guilty of using a multitude of editorial crutches, which include:
- Semicolons
- Dashes
- Ellipses
- "Additionally," "currently," "as a reuslt," "furthermore" and other space-filling variants

In personal correspondence, I tend to overuse:
- "Heh"
- "By the way"

A recent e-mail I sent out to one of my colleagues contains all of the above, which is pretty impressive if you ask me.

[Jo]

Much of my time is spent proofreading other people's work, so I've become good at finding and destroying 'crutches'. This doesn't stop me from using them in my own writing, especially when I'm in a hurry to get my thoughts down. The important thing is to make time to go over your work later, when you can review it objectively, and then be ruthless!

[Brad Berens]

For me, it's turns of phrase that I find myself returning too overmuch that are my crutch. It wasn't until one of my editors pointed out that I use "orders of magnitude" a lot that I became aware of it.

I also go through and zap most adverbs and almost all uses of the word "very" from my prose when I have time to do so.

[dorcas lind]

I've noticed that many Edelmanites tend to use the phrase "with that said" very often in both the spoken and written word. I find it a terrible crutch and try to avoid at every turn.

[George]

Your crutch is in almost every segment, the title, and is even in almost every comment or reply. It is the Word & Letter "I", which should be a red flag.
It shows disrespect for the reader, indicates blatant narcissism, and ignores the "wiffm" principle, "What's in it for me?" Apparently none of you are in marketing or sales, or have a quota.