Although and though

KansasWriter · Apr 5, 2009

Hi all,

I've been revising and revising this book I'm writing (non-fiction travelogue) and trying to eliminate as many overused words as possible. It's really amazing how many times I used words such as, well, 'many'. After looking at the sentence for a little bit, I'm usually able to cut out the fat. Huzzah!

But the words 'although' and 'though' don't seem to be as flexible so to speak. I find it's either use one of those words, or use the word 'but'. There's really no other option because it's observing that a situation is at odds with another situation.

Does anyone else find this? Does a 75,000-word document necessarily have some words that are used quite a bit?

Thanks,
KW

EFCollins · Apr 5, 2009

Hi! There are always a few words that pop up more than others. Just think if we had to cut out all the "the" in our works. Or I's, or even "and". Though and although probably will show up a bit more, but if you break it up a bit, say limit these to one every so often, exchanging with "but" or something else, it shouldn't be so bad. There are just some words the English language that are used often.

Hope this helps some.
Peace and love
~Ellen

kikilynn · Apr 5, 2009

You can always change the structure of the sentence. Reword so you aren't using "but" or "though." Ellen's right, there are some words that you just can't cut.

Danthia · Apr 6, 2009

I've found doing a find/replace for the problem words and making them all bold-red (one at a time). Then I look at the document page by page and see how where all the red words are. If I see a lot of one page, I know I need to trim a few, because so many so close will likely jump out. But if they're not bunched together, they're usually fine.

Of course, this only applies to invisible type words, like though or said. Unusual words tend to jump out even if you only use them two or three times in the same manuscript.

Although and though

KansasWriter

EFCollins

World Class Rambler

kikilynn

You can find me on occasion.

Danthia