Good writing should be an enjoyment for the reader, not work.
"To be sure" is a useful phrase to emphasize a point a writer is about to make. But when used to excess, it loses any meaning it might have, and becomes distracting. But this is true of any phrase. It's useful in moderation, but quickly becomes a meaningless filler, adding nothing to a writer's message. This point was driven home in a recent reading of a best-selling book. When the phrase "to be sure" appeared on every other page, and sometimes twice on a single page, in chapter after chapter, it became jarring.
Moral: If it adds little or nothing to what you're trying to convey, don't use it. Repetition for emphasis is one thing, but repetition that jars and distracts readers, leaving them to puzzle out why you're using a single phrase so often only antagonizes readers and destroys their attention.
No comments:
Post a Comment