Every now and then a new catch word seems to take the English language by storm. The latest candidate: "Literally."
The sportscaster on my local news here in DC was recapping the British Open golf tournament, which ended in a playoff between Sergio Garcia and Padraig Harrington. Evidently, Garcia had the lead in regulation, lost it, then came back to tie, forcing the extra holes. The sportscaster reported with a straight face that Garcia came back "literally" from the dead. Sounds like quite the miraculous comeback!
I then counted him using the word literally three more times during the broadcast. I only hope his news director pointed out this overuse. You may never have the opportunity to deliver a newscast. Still, you owe it to yourself and to your audiences to monitor your vocabulary during presentations and media interviews for inappropriate use of such ill-advised words. Somehow they have a way of sneaking into our everyday conversations at times. Just because everyone else is literally on the bandwagon doesn't mean you have to jump on, too.
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