I write a lot of proposals and a lot of grants - I try and use words - when I am feeling even mildly creative - that can paint a picture, that can illustrate a mood or emotion. There are certain words in the english language that I feel should be locked or somehow limited in their use. *Wonderful *and *Great *are two of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to over use.
So, to my word smitty friends on the boards: do any of you have any good suggestions for substitutions for “wonderful” and “great”?
In what context are you using these words? In grants that I review these words or similar ones are hardly ever used, and when they are they are very tightly correlated with crappy proposals written by clueless people. This is engineering, so an arts proposal might be different.
Show don’t tell is a good rule to live by. If you can’t show why your proposal is wonderful or great, you’ve got bigger problems than any thesaurus can solve.
I should have prefaced this thread by saying I’m griping.
I do a lot of work for non-profits in the green industry. I am reviewing most of the grants that I come in contact with, of the ones I author I am usually the last person to see it before it goes out. I’ve been writing grants for a long time as well, however, for a new grant writer who I have little time to train these over used words come up a lot. I pretty much write all the mid-term reports and final reports and in those I don’t have to be as creative, it’s the new monies that we are seeking where I truly need to be a word-wright.
Yes, I use a thesaurus but I don’t like the merriam webster one, I like the visual one though.
I apologise for the griping, but I am only recently trying to look for newer more articulate ways to convey thoughts. I just ordered a new thesaurus, from a link I found on NPR.