Thoughts & Quotes

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up (Your Writing)

Scooped from a Twitter thread by Benjamin Dreyer, Random House’s vice president, executive managing editor, and copy chief—

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up (Your Writing)

Go a week without—

very
rather/somewhat
really
quite
so
of course
that/which
even
thing
this
of course
in fact
the fact that
interesting
special
famous
precisely
exactly
utterly
absolutely
seems/appears
there are
simply put
however
indeed

Very smart = brilliant
Very tired = exhausted
Very hungry = ravenous

Of course, you can use them all. But first try doing without them and make yourself alarmingly conscious of them.

Go forever without—

just
actually
basically
literally
sort of
kind of
a lot
proactive

***

His new book, Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style, is the climax (so far) of his nearly three decades in the copy-editing business, and it shows his playful sense of humor as well as his deep appreciation for clear writing and good language. The book is full of no-nonsense pronouncements on matters like the Oxford comma (use it) and the word “literally” (use it at your peril). It is also idiosyncratic, because writing style is highly personal, subject to an individual’s taste and whim.