Written by Martin Wiles

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As a child, I loved to watch Looney Tunes on Saturday mornings. One of my favorites was Foghorn Leghorn, a large rooster who was always trying to outsmart the family watchdog. But the episodes I enjoyed most featured a scrawny little weasel named Willy. He appeared in three episodes: Plop Goes the Weasel, Weasel Stop, and Weasel While You Work.

Willy was a persistent little weasel, so Foghorn—in order not to be eaten or have his flock eaten—found himself entangled with this pesky little varmint. He tried to put him on the trail of the Barnyard Dawg by dressing the dog like a chicken. After all, what weasel would not rather have a large chicken?   

True to life, we generally associate the weasel with chickens. And rightly so. They have ways of weaseling into chicken yards and coops to kill chickens or suck their eggs. But as a writer and editor, I have discovered that weasels are not relegated to barnyards.

In writing, as it relates to redundancy and wordiness, weasels are words or phrases that sneak into our writing, making it less than excellent. Since these are typically pet words (so familiar we barely notice them) or phrases we use to make our writing sound impressive, we often use them without a second glance. Thus, our writing appears to be whole—as does the egg that the weasel has sucked dry—but it is not.

As editors, we may not use the exact words or phrases the writer does, making it easier for us to help them snag the weasels. Additionally, it is always easier for someone else to trap what we cannot. Being familiar with the most common weasel words and phrases enables us to do a good job and helps us help writers become better writers.

Some of the more common weasel words and phrases follow:

•           Allegedly

•           Appears to

•           Arguably

•           Can

•           Commonly

•           Could

•           Many

•           Seemingly

•           Suggests

•           Supposedly

•           Estimated

•           Potentially

An easy way for us to catch these weasels is to use Word’s Find feature to check whether the writer has overused any of these words.

Weasels weigh down writing, sucking the life from what would otherwise warm our hearts. Like a gardener who weeds out grass and weeds from their flowers or vegetables, let’s weed out those weasels so the writing can shine.ic.

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