Thread: Speaking for myself, personally.

Speaking for myself. personally, I hate this construction. I see it all over the place, not only is it, in itself, tautological, it is then frequently followed by "I". Speaking for myself, personally, I think it is horrid.

Well personally I don't mind it.

In case you were wondering, by any chance, I, frankly, as a matter of fact, happen to believe, in my humble opinion, that you, Olly, are, for what it's worth, quite possibly, without a doubt, one hundred and ten percent correct, as far as being correct goes.

Nice rant there. I think it was a little incendiary. I think I understand although I don't particularly agree.

When revising my work, my first revision is to correct the overuse of any single pronoun, article, or conjunction. It is true that people overuse words sometimes. However, I don't believe there is necessarily bad writing, because there are those that identify with it. It is simply not for you.

It bothers me when people refer to a university or hospital without using an article in front of it, as if it were a proper noun. But that is another battle for another day. Take care.

I tried to avoid it as well. It just sets off my readability alarm every time I read it. I avoid using "personally" whenever possible. The closest I'll usually get is something like "I find it offensive personally" or "I have no personal stake" or some similar construct, and usually it'll be followed by something speaking to a greater group.

"I don't find farting in public personally offensive, but I understand how some people would."

generally qualifying terms like 'personally', 'in my opinion', 'basically', 'technically', etc are often overused. they're excusable (just) in a discursive piece when one wishes to accurately qualify a statement. but their use in a narrative is usually a big no-no.

the main reason for this is that, no matter how they're used, they are always distracting of the actual point. i tend to call them 'interruptive phrases', mainly because of not knowing how else to categorize them but mainly because, yes, they are interruptions. they interrupt the flow of the piece and nine times out of ten add nothing to the point because, well, we usually KNOW whether something is 'personal' or not because how could it NOT be personal? same goes for 'in my opinion' and 'speaking for myself'. they almost come across as stalling and/or an attempt to distance oneself from the statement, which is terribly weakening. as for 'technically' and 'basically', they do have their place but again, nine times out of ten it is not in the way they are used. how often do people use the term 'technically' when nothing about what they are saying refers to anything actually 'technical'? e.g ' i loved him a great deal but, technically, it was never going to work because he was a douche.' similarly, 'basically' only has a place when used in a 'laymans terms' statement following something rife with jargon e.g: 'dr. matthews injected ninety cc's of hydroglycerin into his pulmanary gland causing severe cardiac malfunction until, basically, he blew his heart wide open.'

Personally, I think it doesn't matter. What really bothers me is "In my humble opinion"

I hate the phrase which one of my co-workers uses constantly ... 'as of this writing'

Originally Posted by helium

What really bothers me is "In my humble opinion"

That I can well understand, and how come those who use it are never humble?

Originally Posted by helium

Personally, I think it doesn't matter. What really bothers me is "In my humble opinion"

That's right up there with 'no offense, but...'

Originally Posted by Foxee

That's right up there with 'no offense, but...'

And that makes me think of "I am not a racist, but ..." Which always seems to be followed by some incredibly racist remark which the speaker somehow feels is okay because they said this. YES YOU ARE, IT IS NOT OKAY TO SAY THAT, EVER!

Of course they aren't humble, otherwise they wouldn't need to state what they are