Clear those cobwebs from your writing

Time for some writers' spring cleaning.

Time for blowing away musty cobwebs, like this one:

"We will not tolerate injustice in any way, shape or form."

Does that include the injustice of redundancy? Make a choice:

1. Choose "way."

2. Choose "shape." It's a better way.

3. Choose "form." It's a way to shape things.

Next case: Why write that one thing is "not unlike" another thing? Why not say it's "like" another?

While we're at it: Do you shudder when you hear someone say, "Like I said..."? It should be, "As I said."

File this next case under "Little things mean a lot." Look at "the" in this sentence:

"Smith's wife suggested a possible news story on the violent behavioral patterns in soldiers returning from the Iraq war."

When you use "the" in that way, you point to specific violent behavioral patterns.

Next: "Presently" does not mean "at present" or "now." It means soon, as in, "I'll join you presently" — a process of moving toward a result. Many will challenge me on this, but I opt for the old, traditional definition.

And this, from a newspaper obituary:

"Harry M. Rosenfeld, who injected his brash brand of journalism into the Washington Post, where he oversaw the two reporters who transformed a local crime story into the national Watergate corruption scandal that toppled the Nixon administration, died July 16 at the age of 91."

Four words — who, where, who and that — introduce so many clauses in one sentence that you can feel you are trying to hop aboard a runaway train. Sometimes a period becomes your best friend.

Last of all, some friendly advice from Stephen King: "Read, read, read. If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write."

So choose a lane, drop mistaken uses of "the," don't pack everything into one sentence just because you can.

Cobwebs, begone!