Comments on: Friday Fun: Name Your Top 5 Most Trite, Overused Adjectives and Adverbs

By: Mark Steinborn

Mark Steinborn — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 23:43:06 +0000

When I was a kid the English teachers used to warn us about “verbal crutches.” The worst offender of the time was “you know,” inserted in a sentence so the speaker could indicate he (or she) still wanted the floor, but didn’t know he what to say next. Canadians of the time were famous for inserting “eh?” into every other sentence. (If you remember these crutches, you know how old I am.)

We’re seeing the same kinds of verbal crutches transferred to the marketing sphere with the lists supplied here. Basically, the writer doesn’t know what to say next, so he inserts a trite, overused, banal word that lets the reader know there’s more writing to come… although for my part, by the time I see the word “awesome” or “sizzling” on a my screen, I’m on to the next Web page.

By: Ms. Single Mama

Ms. Single Mama — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 15:20:06 +0000

If I hear or read “the possibilities are endless” one more time I think I’ll puke.

My Top 5 over-used words:

incredible
fantastic
opportunity
unique
feel

By: Tom Chandler/Copywriter Underground

Tom Chandler/Copywriter Underground — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 19:47:48 +0000

1. State of the art
2. Hyper-anything

Honorable mention to “Integrated” and its evil twin “Highly integrated.”

By: Eamon

Eamon — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 17:55:19 +0000

Plus adjectives should be avoided in creative writing as well ..

By: reuben

reuben — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 20:19:35 +0000

Awesome is public enemy no 1! And though this is a little off the grammatically beaten path, if I hear one more person use “pretty much”….