Zit words are the ugly, festering blotches that make otherwise pretty sentences look like ass. Here’s an example.
It’s my personal opinion that dogs are better than cats.
Unless you’re legally bound to separate your personal and professional opinions, the reader will assume that your opinion is personal.
It’s my personal opinion that dogs are better than cats.
But wait. You’re the one writing. The reader will assume all opinions are yours.
It’s my personal opinion that dogs are better than cats.
That’s much tighter and the reader will know your opinion on the relative worth of dogs and cats. Here’s another example of a zit-faced sentence that you’ve probably read a thousand times on software sites.
We’ll create a custom-tailored solution just for you.
All tailoring is custom. That’s the point of hiring a tailor. And tailoring is an act of creation. Of course it’s “just” for you. Adding “just” is confusing. Get rid of the pimples and the sentence still makes sense.
We’ll tailor a solution for you.
Adding extra words is a tough trap to avoid. But when you’re up against tight spaces and declining attention spans it’s best to be brief.
Most pimple words are adjectives and adverbs. Be on the lookout and pop those suckers before your work goes out in public.
Ouch. This cuts deep. Me, I have a bit of a tendency to use a lot of qualifiers in my writing, not to mention adding a lot of secondary thoughts that contribute little to anything but the word count.
I mean: I overwrite.