{"id":32,"date":"2009-03-29T20:37:00","date_gmt":"2009-03-29T20:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/karwin.com\/blog\/index.php\/2009\/03\/29\/virtually-speaking\/"},"modified":"2009-03-29T20:37:00","modified_gmt":"2009-03-29T20:37:00","slug":"virtually-speaking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/karwin.com\/blog\/index.php\/2009\/03\/29\/virtually-speaking\/","title":{"rendered":"Virtually Speaking"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The word <span style=\"font-style: italic;\">virtually<\/span> is overused.  In many cases using the word virtually simply means <span style=\"font-style: italic;\">not<\/span>.  For example:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I have finished virtually all of my homework.<\/p>\n<p>This new surgical procedure is virtually pain-free.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/0195382757\/\">Modern American Usage<\/a>, Bryan A. Garner counts virtually as a <span style=\"font-style: italic;\">weasel-word<\/span>.  Weasel-words are so named because of the habit of weasels to attack birds&#8217; nests, and eat their eggs by sucking the meat out, leaving an empty shell.&#8221;  Likewise, words such as virtually &#8220;have the effect of rendering uncertain or hollow the statements in which they appear.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>So be careful using virtually, or other words that similarly diminish the words around them.  Other weasel-words commonly used by writers today include <span style=\"font-style: italic;\">significantly<\/span>, <span style=\"font-style: italic;\">obviously<\/span>,   <span style=\"font-style: italic;\">very<\/span>, and <span style=\"font-style: italic;\">quite<\/span>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The word virtually is overused. In many cases using the word virtually simply means not. For example: I have finished virtually all of my homework. This new surgical procedure is virtually pain-free. In Modern American Usage, Bryan A. Garner counts virtually as a weasel-word. Weasel-words are so named because of the habit of weasels to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[23,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pawgV7-w","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/karwin.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/karwin.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/karwin.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karwin.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karwin.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/karwin.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/karwin.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karwin.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karwin.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}