Word Macro for Word Abusers

I overuse some words and phrases in my writing. Most writers have some problem words. It isn’t that the words should never be used, or that we use them incorrectly. We simply use them too frequently.

The following Microsoft Word VBA macro marks words I should check for overuse. Also included are words and phrases I should avoid.

Feel free to copy and modify this macro. I encourage my students to try this macro, too. Once you have the macro in Word, you can alter the word list to reflect your preferences and habits.

Sub macWordsToAvoid()

Dim vFindText As Variant

Dim txtWord As Variant


‘list the exceptions to look for in an array

vFindText = Array(“about”, “all”, “almost”, “a lot”, “already”, “always”, “along with”, _

“anxiously”, “absolutely”, “as well”, “believe”, “certainly”, “clearly”, “definitely”, _

“eagerly”, “easy”, “easily”, “even”, “every”, “feel”, “felt”, “few”, “finally”, “frequently”, _

“good”, “got”, “honestly”, “intrigued”, “intrigues”, “just”, “literally”, _

“many”, “merely”, “must”, “nearly”, “need”, “never”, “nice”, “not”, “numerous”, _

“only”, “quick”, “quickly”, “really”, “so”, “think”, _

“utilize”, “utilized”, “utilizes”, “very”, _

“in the event”, “in order to”, “on the grounds that”, “in case”, “the public”, _

“come to the conclusion”, _

“is”, “am”, “are”, “was”, “were”, “have”, “has”, “had”, “do”, “does”, “did”)


Options.DefaultHighlightColorIndex = wdGray25


ActiveDocument.Select

Selection.MoveLeft


With Selection.Find

‘ Highlight found words

For Each txtWord In vFindText

.Text = txtWord

.Replacement.Text = txtWord

‘Set the Replace parameters

.ClearFormatting

.Replacement.Highlight = True

.Replacement.Font.Bold = True

.Forward = True

.Wrap = wdFindStop

.MatchWholeWord = True

.MatchWildcards = False

.MatchSoundsLike = False

.MatchAllWordForms = False

.Format = True

.MatchCase = False

.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll

Next

End With


End Sub