Trimming the Fat by Raji Oba

1. Very -Avoid using it.

I have cause to believe accurate adjectives do not need qualifiers. If you need to qualify it, replace it. Although may be intended to magnify a verb, an adjective, or another adverb, what very does is make your statement less specific and create a mixup in the minds of very smart, analytically-thinking people like urself.

If you’re very happy, you’re ecstatic.  If you’re very sad, then perhaps you’re melancholic or depressed. Woebegone, even. Very sad is a lazy way of making your point. You gotta work hard.

Another pitfall of using very as a modifier? It’s subjective. Avoid sentiments in ur communications. Very cold and very tall mean different things for different people. Be specific. She’s 6’3. it’s 13 degrees below freezing.

Not only does this culture make your story better, it also makes sure that the reader understands the point you are making.

2. Stuff. Avoid using it.
Stuff is commonly used in a friendly /loose manner to refer to any unspecified accumulation of bodies, objects, or entities. We almost all use “stuff” to refer to things, materials that we cannot literally accurately, and pin-pointedly name, mention, quantify or classify.
I believe highly honest, highly-educated people do not fancy using the word “stuff”. I mean what stuff are you talking about when you mention stuff? when we mention stuff in our writing and speech, our readers or listeners- 100% of the time- have no concrete idea what we are talking about. What often results is a misunderstanding and a petty conflict.
We can avoid communication breakdown. We can be explicit. We can mean what we say and say what we mean.
However, if you are going to use it at all, do not say or write “stuffs”. There’s no such thing as “stuffs”, no matter the bigness or how much of that stuff you are referring to.
Simply say “stuff”.
Say, “I have done a lot of stuff that I’m not proud of”. Now, I’m anxious about going back to doing *this stuff* again.
Do not use a lot of stuffs. Use a lot of stuff. much stuff. all kinds of stuff.
Use stuffs when you are talking about different kinds or species of something. For example, foodstuffs- there’s just all kinds of it.
Use a singular verb with “stuff”.
“A lot of stuff has been reported in the media about the circumstances surrounding the lateness of the assent to Disability Bill. It took a whole lot of years and stuff to get it passed and signed.
So much stuff happens today that’s unthinkable many decades ago.