As I taught this past semester, my teach partner noticed something quite interesting. Since we teach online, the students send us all of their papers and project via email. We split the class and have and primarily grade half the class, allowing the other person to send us additional comments to add. We pool all of this into a typed up sheet of comments. It pretty much makes up everything we normaily would write in the borders and between the lines. Hopefully, the students find the information helpful as well as a form of criticism since we include helpful comments based on our experiences as well as critical notes.

Well, my teaching partner noticed that I seemed to have gotten overly attached to the word "wonderful." So much so that she said I was using the world more than Lawrence Welk. Now, my dad was a huge fan of that show when I was little so I remember a bit, and I have seen a few episodes on the local PBS affiliate. It is enough for me to know that it is not a huge compliment. I found myself trying to adjust and remove that word as much as possible, but it did not prevent it from becoming a WONDERFUL gag for us throughout the whole semester. It provide us with a number of private giggles each time we were grading.

The whole thing got me thinking. I have always had trouble with words coming into my vocabulary and becoming over used. I used to say "Defferent" all the time, but I said it in a way that placed the emphasis on the last part of the word so the RENT became the most important part. I used to drive people insane with my ability to say "No problem."

I also noticed that I tend to use the word "definitely" an awful lot. Do you folks find it as frustrating? Do I have other words I use too much?