flâneur

please don't say things are increasingly happening - by BDM

notebook.bdmcclay.com · 165 words · saved by 4 readers

Few words irritate me like “increasingly.” When I was an editor I made a point of striking it out whenever I noticed it. Once I had a teacher who would go through and strike any use of “the nature of” and “the fact that” because (he said) you should not make claims about nature and facts unless you really mean to do so. I think of him every time I use “the fact that” anyway because I can’t think of a better phrase in the moment. Sorry sir. Notebook is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. My relationship to “increasingly” is similar: you should not use it unless you know that you are talking about something that is in fact increasing. A few days ago I was reading a review that dropped three increasinglies in the first paragraph, which I’d like to believe is some sort of record, but which is probably only a minor league achievement. Here is my own pastiche of how this sort of thing reads to me: Increasingly

Few words irritate me like “increasingly.” When I was an editor I made a point of striking it out whenever I noticed it. Once I had a teacher who would go through and strike any use of “the nature of” and “the fact that” because (he said) you should not make claims about nature and facts unless you really mean to do so. I think of him every time I use “the fact that” anyway because I can’t think of a better phrase in the moment. Sorry sir. My relationship to “increasingly” is similar: you should not use it unless you know that you are talking about something that is in fact increasing. A…

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