Page 967 - Wordsmith A Guide to College Writing

these conversational constructions can simply be edited out of your

paper. They will never be missed.

Conversational Constructions to Eliminate from Your Writing

gonna, a conversational shortening of “going to”

I mean, when used without purpose, as in “It must have been 100

degrees yesterday. I mean, you could have fried an egg on the

asphalt.”

man, when used as an interjection, as in, “Man, I had no idea what
was happening.”

okay, when used to open a sentence

plus, when used to mean “and”

so, when used without purpose, as in, “So what is your major?”

substandard substitutions for “says” and “said” such as was all,
was like, goes, or went

this or these, when used as adjectives to demonstrate something

that is not present for the writer or the reader, as in “My neighbor

had this dog” (My neighbor had a dog) or “The restaurant had

these shrimp basted in wine” (The restaurant had shrimp basted in
wine).

well, when used to open a sentence

well, DUH, under any circumstances

you know, when used to open a sentence or as a sentence filler,

as in “Jamie was, you know, not very happy with her instructor.”

Examples