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R Mercer's avatar

Profanity, used sparingly and smartly has power. Most people over use it. Teenagers and young adults definitely over use it. It becomes noise. Meaningless and unprovocative.

I have been a public school teacher for 25 years (English and art). Prior to that I was in the military. I know a lot of words, I have the best words--sometimes I use them to telling effect. It has a telling effect because I rarely use those words (even among only adults), the expectation is that I won't/can't use those words, and when I do use those words it is at the right time and place.

A lot of times using a "close" word when it is clear I mean the other word works just as well.

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SandyG's avatar

I'm sure you came across the overuse of "awesome" in your students' writing 10+ years ago. That's gone out of use, thankfully.

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R Mercer's avatar

Yes, I stomped on that right away. What was current (and still seems to be) is saying/writing things like "more better" They also still seem to like to use the word like... It's, like, more better than before. :sigh:

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M. Trosino's avatar

Damned right! ;-) Speaking of 'noise', I noted same in conversation below.

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