Slightly pointless

Readers get no value from slightly pointless qualifying words like:

• slightly
• quite
• sort of
• a bit
• in a sense
• to some extent
• kind of
• mostly
• seems
• suggests
• indicates
• might
• could
• probably
• possibly
  
  

There are more, but this will give you a bit of a flavour. They’re called qualifying words and each one creates a sense of doubt.

You’ll see words like could and might in legal copy where something probably can’t be guaranteed. But, with that protection comes uncertainty, and sometimes you want to be certain.

Qualifying words are not benign.

Confident writing is authoritative and builds trust.

But qualifying words could harm the vigour and authority of your writing.

• It was quite loud
• She sort of limped
• They were a bit late
• Your work is mostly OK
• In a sense, they were the perfect couple
• To some extent, I admired her
  
  

Be brave and say what you actually think. Do you admire her or not? Are they perfect or not? There's no need to dilute the meaning.

The dilutions don’t add anything. They don’t make it clearer, in fact they make it fuzzier.

It's OK to have a 3 word sentence that says something as simple as "They were late".

Have some conviction.

I’m not saying to never use these words. There’s a fine line between having conviction and coming across like a condescending know-it-all. Sometimes instead of knowing something, I really do just think something.

Just look out for qualifying words and determine whether they dilute your authority, which in turn, dilutes your reader’s confidence in you.