At the beginning of our sentences, we often delay connecting with our readers by putting meaningless words in their way.
It was Kate who pulled away, momentarily stunned that he had been so bold in a room full of strangers.
To help you spot meaningless words at the beginning of your sentences, look for these word pairs:
- it and who
- it and that
- it and when
Some people call these unnecessary words at the beginning of a sentence “the windup before the pitch”; judges call them “throat clearing.” Sometimes we remove the entire phrase, like “It should be noted that . . . .”; sometimes, we replace it with a single word, like “It is required that Plaintiff . . . ,” becoming “Plaintiff must . . . .”; and sometimes, as we see above, we keep the words with meaning and cut the rest. Thousands of these “windups” appear in our writing, and WordRake knows how to find most of them for you.
Read more about recognizing unnecessary words in this Writing Tip.
Eliminate Useless Words with WordRake
With a single click, WordRake ripples through your document checking for “windups,” useless words, cumbersome phrasing, and other issues that detract from your writing. It runs in Microsoft Word and Outlook, and its suggested changes appear in the familiar track-changes style, just like the example above.
Try WordRake and cut the clutter from your writing today!
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