While writing, I would jot down the words I suspected were overused. Then when the draft was done, I would do a search and correct them. [See image]
But no more. The dinosaur bought an app.
Like many apps, this one will search for those deadly adverbs, the (mostly) unnecessary modifiers of verbs. “The road to hell is paved with adverbs,” said Stephen King. (On Writing.)
In other words, pick effective verbs and let them carry their own weight.
This app also generates lists of other overly used words, many which never occurred to me. But while making the corrections, I found missed repeat words. So did I say, “Whatever. It got most of them”? No. I pulled out my old pen and paper and began scribbling and searching and correcting.
Then I struggled to figure out how to migrate the corrected draft from the app to Word—
Aaaaaaahhhhhhh, I’m slipping back down the evolutionary scale!
…………..
Bonus: Here’s another word for the garbage bin. Whom. “As far as I’m concerned, ‘whom’ is a word that was invented to make everyone sound like a butler.” Calvin Trillin