Reader Elizabeth recently paid me a great compliment:
If by language of your own, you mean the unique “voice” that authors are supposed to have…..ohh yeah you totally do. I feel like I could recognize something you write a mile away.
This comment made me very happy and inspired me to compile a list of my trademark words and expressions, a.k.a. words I grievously overuse:
- screeching
- endless
- vile jerks
- all kinds of fool
- crazed religious fanatics
- those stupid XYZs
- so (at the beginning of a sentence)
- Ah!
- irredeemably
- quasi-
- pseudo-
- the whole process
- this is torture
- has the gall
- as much as the next person
- move on already
- creepazoid
I just remembered more:
- buddy – to signal annoyance
- my friend – to signal that I’m smiling when I write it
Feel free to add any other verbal constructions or linguistic peculiarities that you associate with me. 🙂
Clarissa's Blog 
Hysterical!
LikeLike
Haha!
This post reminds me of when I was teaching 12-year-olds, and one day one of them remarked on how I let sentences trail off and use “so” all the time to start sentences, both of which they found funny! “So” is my standard go-to prompt when they’ve only given half an answer, though; what else are we supposed to use?
LikeLike
hey sweet, I get my own post! Not bad at all. Your language is definitely harsh (not in a negative way) and very decisive. And like many people who have thoroughly mastered English but not as a first language, you sometimes have ways of saying things that are thoroughly correct and yet not quite the way native speakers expect to hear it. It’s very charming, altogether!
LikeLike
Buddy… I afraid to comment here now, my friend. You do have a distinct and recognizable style.
🙂
LikeLike
I haven’t been reading your blog enough yet to comment on your distinct style–hell I don’t even recognize my own, although I’ve been told by a good friend that I do have a style that he instantly recognizes. It has always surprised me to hear that. This is interesting though and that you notice words that you tend to use. I can’t say that I’m observant or that I pay much notice to my own style of word choice–patterns. It’s like hearing a recording of my voice–it doesn’t sound the same as when I hear myself speak. My focus has always been more on clarity and if I’m getting my point across or evoking the type of response I’d like.
LikeLike
How could you have written a glossary of Clarissa Speak and missed the word “egregious”?
LikeLike
Exactly! I actually searched for this post by entering “egregious” in the search box. I was so sure it had to be there.
LikeLike