What are lazy words and why shouldn’t we use them in our writing?
I was watching a Tim Ferriss video the other day and the term “lazy words” came up.
Even though the topic of the video was about reading, Ferriss called himself out for using the word “interesting” to describe a book, saying it is a “lazy adjective.”
This caught my attention (yes, I know I’m a nerd for it).
I thought to myself, “What constitutes a lazy word? Are they words that have little value to a sentence and/or don’t fully describe something? What’s wrong with “interesting?”
Then, after a quick pause, Ferriss changed “interesting” to “thought-provoking.” I now had my answer.
But I was still curious.
And being the millennial that I am, I wanted gratification immediately. I went online to find a list of lazy words so that I can potentially cut some of them out of my writing.
There were no such posts that existed. Rather, it was a bunch of pages on the various synonyms for the word “lazy.”
I went all the way down to the third page of Google, but couldn’t find anything.
I decided to tap out and gave up the search.
However, I wanted to at least have a definition.
Thus, I created one myself. Although I wasn’t sure what the actual definition was, I decided to define “lazy words” as:
Lazy words (whether it is a verb, adjective or adverb) are words that don’t clearly describe an action and a person, place, or thing.
Lazy words are also words that don’t add value to a sentence (filler words). Words such as just, so, that, like are some examples of filler words.
After I came up with this definition, I went over a few blog posts that recently completed. I proofread it to see if I had any lazy words in them.
To no one’s surprise, I had plenty.
I noticed I used the words “so” and “that” a lot. And I use them as fillers.
As for lazy descriptions, I know I have many that need to be fixed. I just need some time to learn more words and to figure out how to identify lazy words.
I will say, however, that after watching that video, I’ve been more mindful of what words I use and how I structure my sentences. I’m nowhere near a good writer though.
But I feel I’m one level better than before.
What can be done to avoid lazy words?
I don’t have an answer for this. But I did find a blog post from Write Right that gives a solution to the problem. It says:
“To get rid of such lazy words, I recommend one course of action: editing and revision. Good writers look at their work critically and examine it for the hemming and hawing of ‘just,’ ‘really,’ and ‘very.’ They also look at the adverbs and ask, ‘Is this word necessary? Could I find a better verb or noun? Does the surrounding context make the adverb extraneous?’
They then cut, cut, and cut some more. Afterward, they gather the scraps and reshape them into something wondrous and strong, something worth writing home about. They accomplish that because they, like you, do the work of the better writer. They get rid of the lazy words.”
So, to eliminate lazy words, you have to proofread and edit. And then proofread and edit again.
And then you’ll hopefully have something that lacks useless words.
What steps are you going to take to cut out lazy words from your writing?
P.S. If you want to improve your writing (and cut out lazy words), I suggest you read William Zinsser’s On Writing Well (affiliate link).
This is a great writing guide that will teach you how to use your words efficiently.