Usage

Make professors appreciate the clarity of your writing. The following no-nos may provide helpful.

Usage
Some words and phrases to avoid are the following.

Center around
A geometrical impossibility. A story may perhaps center on a certain feature, but to make it center around that feature is to make the hub surround the wheel.

Usage
Some words and phrases to avoid are the following.

Just as
This phrase as a term of comparison is too precise for literary analysis because the adjective just means exactly or identical in every possible way, almost an impossibility when discussing literature. You should take the trouble to establish the points of similarity and dissimilarity between things that you are comparing.

Usage
Some words and phrases to avoid are the following.

lifestyle
An overused neologism, especially inappropriate for use with older literature, that is too general to mean much. One dictionary defines it as a persons typical approach to living, including his moral attitudes, preferred entertainment, fads, fashions, etc. If you wish to define someones moral attitudes, do so; if you try to define a persons lifestyle, you have a monumental task of allinclusive definition. Its easier just to avoid it.

Usage
Some words and phrases to avoid are the following.

What the author is trying to say is

The implication of this expression is that the author failed to say it. You dont say Im trying to get to Boston if you are already there; give the author credit for having got where he or she was going.

Usage
Some words and phrases to avoid are the following.

Somewhat

This term is specifically designed to avoid or evade precision. Since clarity and precision are the goals of critical analysis, these terms should be avoided. You want to sound firm and convinced, and not wishy-washy.

Usage
Some words and phrases to avoid are the following.

Rather

This term is specifically designed to avoid or evade precision. Since clarity and precision are the goals of critical analysis, these terms should be avoided. You want to sound firm and convinced, and not wishy-washy.

Usage
Some words and phrases to avoid are the following.

More or less

This term is specifically designed to avoid or evade precision. Since clarity and precision are the goals of critical analysis, these terms should be avoided. You want to sound firm and convinced, and not wishy-washy.

Usage
Some words and phrases to avoid are the following.

As it were

This term is specifically designed to avoid or evade precision. Since clarity and precision are the goals of critical analysis, these terms should be avoided. You want to sound firm and convinced, and not wishy-washy.

Usage
Some words and phrases to avoid are the following.

In a manner

This term is specifically designed to avoid or evade precision. Since clarity and precision are the goals of critical analysis, these terms should be avoided. You want to sound firm and convinced, and not wishy-washy.