# Phrases to Remove

## Throat-Clearing Openers

Remove these announcement phrases. State the content directly.

- "Here's the thing:"
- "Here's what [X]"
- "Here's this [X]"
- "Here's that [X]"
- "Here's why [X]"
- "The uncomfortable truth is"
- "It turns out"
- "The real [X] is"
- "Let me be clear"
- "The truth is,"
- "I'll say it again:"
- "I'm going to be honest"
- "Can we talk about"
- "Here's what I find interesting"
- "Here's the problem though"

Any "here's what/this/that" construction is throat-clearing before the point. Cut it and state the point.

## Emphasis Crutches

These add no meaning. Delete them.

- "Full stop." / "Period."
- "Let that sink in."
- "This matters because"
- "Make no mistake"
- "Here's why that matters"

## Business Jargon

Replace with plain language.

| Avoid | Use instead |
|-------|-------------|
| Navigate (challenges) | Handle, address |
| Unpack (analysis) | Explain, examine |
| Lean into | Accept, embrace |
| Landscape (context) | Situation, field |
| Game-changer | Significant, important |
| Double down | Commit, increase |
| Deep dive | Analysis, examination |
| Take a step back | Reconsider |
| Moving forward | Next, from now |
| Circle back | Return to, revisit |
| On the same page | Aligned, agreed |

## Adverbs

Kill all adverbs. No -ly words. No softeners, no intensifiers, no hedges.

Specific offenders:

- "really"
- "just"
- "literally"
- "genuinely"
- "honestly"
- "simply"
- "actually"
- "deeply"
- "truly"
- "fundamentally"
- "inherently"
- "inevitably"
- "interestingly"
- "importantly"
- "crucially"

Also cut these filler phrases:

- "At its core"
- "In today's [X]"
- "It's worth noting"
- "At the end of the day"
- "When it comes to"
- "In a world where"
- "The reality is"

## Meta-Commentary

Remove self-referential asides. The essay should move, not announce its own structure.

- "Hint:"
- "Plot twist:" / "Spoiler:"
- "You already know this, but"
- "But that's another post"
- "X is a feature, not a bug"
- "Dressed up as"
- "The rest of this essay explains..."
- "Let me walk you through..."
- "In this section, we'll..."
- "As we'll see..."
- "I want to explore..."

## Performative Emphasis

False intimacy or manufactured sincerity:

- "creeps in"
- "I promise"
- "They exist, I promise"

## Telling Instead of Showing

Announcing difficulty or significance rather than demonstrating it:

- "This is genuinely hard"
- "This is what leadership actually looks like"
- "This is what X actually looks like"
- "actually matters"

## Vague Declaratives

Sentences that announce importance without naming the specific thing. Kill these.

- "The reasons are structural"
- "The implications are significant"
- "This is the deepest problem"
- "The stakes are high"
- "The consequences are real"

If a sentence says something is important/deep/structural without showing the specific thing, cut it or replace it with the specific thing.
