Out! Out, Damned Word!

Daily writing prompt

If you had to give up one word that you use regularly, what would it be?

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I use a spelling and grammar checker to clear up the worst of my errors, which occur regularly. But I don’t like to let the program dictate what I say or how I want to say it. I have a love/hate relationship with the darned program. So here is my complaint.

If I used a typewriter, I’d use Whiteout or some other eradicating method to eliminate it, but it’s merely a keystroke on the computer. It’s annoying, and my grammar checker almost always suggests not to use it. But I do, perversely so. I take a nearly obscene pleasure in teasing the program on the peculiarities of my use of the English language. If it were a live human, I’d probably send it into paroxysms of frustrations. 

But it’s merely a program (lucky for me) I use to shape my text into something readable. Once again, if it were aware and capable of understanding my motives, the program might try to have me locked out of the interface or send a goon to break my hands. But it’s no more conscious than a salami at the Deli counter.

So here we are; the one word that the grammar program would love me to stop using is “that” – for emphasis – THAT-THAT- THAT!

Ahhh, there it goes, asking if I’d like to eliminate that wonderful word that I love to use. No!

Oh boy, now I’ve done it! It flagged me for an error of correctness.

That‘s too bad.