Something Went Horribly Wrong!

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Photo by Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash

Photo by Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash

By Eliot Kleinberg

With Lou Ann Frala

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A blog about better writing

Eliot Kleinberg Eliot Kleinberg

Segment 27: Very!

Readers: Each of the following is wrong. Each word is an absolute. It cannot be modified. But bad writers make this mistake on a regular basis.

• Very unique

• Most iconic

• Very pregnant

• More overwhelmed 

• Very dead

• Most unique

• Very fatal

• More straight

• Very right

• More dead

• Very final

• More identical 

• Very wrong

• Most perfect

Watch this on video! https://youtu.be/KRWAhcl8zdY

Next: Now where did I leave that modifier?

Readers: "Something Went Horribly Wrong," features samples of bad writing we see nearly every day. You can participate! Be our duly deputized “grammar police:” Your motto: “To protect and correct.” Send in your photos of store signs, street signs, newspaper headlines, tweets, and so on. It doesn’t have to be a grammatical error. It can be just what we call “cowardly writing.” Include your name and home town so we properly can credit you. You're free to add a comment, although we reserve the right to edit or omit. Now get out there! Send to Eliot@eliotkleinberg.com

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NOTE: Eliot and Lou Ann are available for speaking engagements, and can travel. Reach us through the comments section. Just think of all of your employees getting back to work on a Monday, their heads filled with all the ways we’ve shown them to be better communicators!

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