Avoid ‘dead words,’ such as ‘good,’ ‘bad’ and ‘said’

Teachers’ ‘dead words’ project seeks to vanquish dull diction. Some writers fume: What’s so bad about ‘said’?

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Looking to spice up your writing?

Avoid “dead words,” such as good, bad, go, make, thing and said.

That’s what a growing army of fed-up teachers are saying (er, howling?), The Wall Street Journal reported this week in a story headlined, “‘Use More Expressive Words!‘ Teachers Bark, Beseech, Implore. To encourage lively writing, instructors put certain words to rest; no more ‘fun.'”

The push to get texting-addicted youngsters to expand their vocabularies is spearheaded by educators who are bleary from grading essays littered with awesome, sweet and rad. The anti-“dead words” movement even suggests lessons for communicators and other wordsmiths, though perhaps not those the educators are pushing.

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