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The Steve Laube Agency

Helping to Change the World…Word by Word

The Steve Laube Agency

The Steve Laube Agency

Helping to Change the World Word by Word

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Home » words

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Every Word Counts

By Steve Laubeon May 13, 2019
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Many years ago while editing a nonfiction book, I noticed the author had a proclivity for using the word “very” quite often. To me the repetition jumped off the page.

After deleting 95% of its use, I returned the manuscript; the author was mortified that their work had such an obvious error in it. Hilariously, I later received an email with the word “very” repeated over and over, at least 500 times (very very very very very very, etc.). Then came the message, “Just trying to get that word out of my system before I write my next book.”

Recently I came across a cool online tool where you can see which of your words are repeated too often. Use this link to the WordCounter.net website and run your WIP (work in progress) within its walls.

I ran the Guidelines page on our website in this counter. In a 1,887-word document, I use the word “proposal” 28 times, the word “mail” 20 times, and the word “book” 19 times. Not abnormal considering the nature of the article.

Out of curiosity I ran the full text of a public domain edition of the book The Imitation of Christ by Thomas A’Kempis (59,454 words) and discovered that the word “God” is used 410 times, “things” 336 times, “man” 260 times, and “good” 217 times. On the site there is a little check box on the statistic box that allows it to review three words used together. This book uses the phrase “above all things” 20 times.

The reading level was evaluated to be at 11-12th grade.

In other words (no pun intended), the sample book is well written without odd words or phrases that were overused.

Which begs the question about your work in progress. What words have you overused in your manuscript?

Later I took one paragraph from the A’Kempis book at random and entered it into the system and clicked to have it check for plagiarism. It took me to grammarly.com which reported, “We’ve found 6 writing issues in your text and have also detected significant plagiarism.” To verify the issues, you have to sign up on that site and pay for their services. But apparently teachers use this to check students’ papers for plagiarism.

Read their Privacy Policy to make sure you are comfortable transmitting your work to a website based in Switzerland.

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Category: Editing, Grammar, Writing CraftTag: Editing, words

Forgotten Words We Ought to Revive

By Bob Hostetleron May 9, 2018
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A few weeks ago I asked my friends on social media if they had a favorite word that no one seems to use anymore—and the response was fast and furious (I should make a dozen or so movies about it, right?). While there were far too many replies to list them all, here is a list of some of my favorites (and the person(s) who mentioned each), followed by the one word that got the most mentions and …

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Category: Creativity, LanguageTag: Creativity, Language, words

Five Dollar Words

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon July 28, 2016
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“Don’t use a five-dollar word when a fifty-cent word will do.” – Mark Twain One of my daughters is an Arts and Visual Technology major, so of course she has to read articles about art. Here are a few sentences from an eight-page article, “Modernist Painting” by Clement Greenburg. The footnotes inform us that this article was both published and broadcast on the radio. I identify Modernism …

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Category: Art, Craft, Creativity, Writing CraftTag: Craft, words, Writing Craft

The Sound of Words

By Karen Ballon February 10, 2016
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One of the things I love most about working with words is that I will never reach the point where I can say, “There, now. I’ve learned it all.” Love, love learning new things. Especially when it’s something I can share with all of you. So, have you ever heard of phonesthesia or sound symbolism? Basically, it’s the idea that the sound of a word plays into it’s perceived meaning. That there are …

Read moreThe Sound of Words
Category: Communication, Craft, Creativity, Editing, Humor, LanguageTag: Language, words

Not All Words Are Created Equal

By Karen Ballon July 29, 2015
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Twice in the last few weeks something happened that got me thinking about how very careful we need to be when revising, either our own work or someone else’s. First, during a worship team practice, the leader changed the words of a song from “You give and take away,” referring to God, to “You give me all I need.” When I asked why she’d changed the words, she …

Read moreNot All Words Are Created Equal
Category: Art, Language, TheologyTag: Editing, Language, Theology, words

The Power of a Single Word

By Steve Laubeon July 27, 2015
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According to various sources there are about one million words in the English language. Approximately 750,000 of them are technical or scientific. That leaves us with 250,000 words with which to communicate. But the Oxford English Dictionary Unabridged has only 170,000 words in it. And I doubt any of us know all of them or use them. According to the TestYourVocab.com website the average person …

Read moreThe Power of a Single Word
Category: Art, Language, Theology, Writing CraftTag: Language, words

Wordsmiths of the World, Unite!

By Karen Ballon May 20, 2015
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Did you know you’re a wordsmith? If you’re a writer, you are. A wordsmith is defined by Webster’s as a “craftsman or artist whose medium is words.” That, my friends, is you. Which is why I’m coming to you today and asking you to have mercy on your readers. (Yes, I’m making this same request of myself as a writer.) Whether you write fiction or nonfiction, let’s be done with empty words in our …

Read moreWordsmiths of the World, Unite!
Category: Craft, Editing, Grammar, Writing CraftTag: words, Writing Craft

Worshipping Words

By Dan Balowon May 5, 2015
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Yesterday was a strange and eerie anniversary.  Six hundred years ago, on May 4, 1415 the body of Bible translator and Christian dissident John Wycliffe was exhumed from his grave in England, burned and his ashes were thrown into the river. And if that wasn’t weird enough, this was done over thirty years after his death. It sounds like something from a Dirty Harry movie. “You think this is …

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Category: Communication, Craft, CreativityTag: Communication, words

A Love Affair with Words

By Karen Ballon January 28, 2015
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I love writers. Love how much they love words. Love how they seem to know from the earliest age, that words are more than just letters strung together, they’re… Power. Persuasion. Delight. Wonder. Magic. As I pondered this, I looked back at those early days when I started to discover I was a word person. And I wondered… When did writing first sing to us? To me? To you? Whose words first stirred …

Read moreA Love Affair with Words
Category: Creativity, Personal, Writing CraftTag: Stories, The Writing Life, words

The Care and Feeding of … WORDS!

By Karen Ballon June 29, 2011
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“Handle them carefully, for words have more power than atom bombs.”
Pearl Strachan
“By words the mind is winged.”
Aristophanes
“The turn of a sentence has decided the fate of many a friendship, and, for aught that we know, the fate of many a kingdom.”
Jeremy Bentham
Amazing, isn’t it? Something so small as words can have such huge impact.

The right word in any circumstance can bring …

Read moreThe Care and Feeding of … WORDS!
Category: Craft, Creativity, Karen, Writing CraftTag: Creativity, Get Published, Karen, words, Writing Craft

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