Let's cut back on these 3 devices...

Writing devices, that is. There are a few little tools that have become too commonplace to my readin' eyes. I am guilty of using these myself, so I pledge to try to cut back on them as well. Here are 3 things I think are being overused:

1) Using. Sentences. Of. One. Word. Each. For. Emphasis.
--This comes in handy in print to get at a choppy but firm way of direct address that usually express forcefulness if not outright hostility. It's way out of control, though, especially in comic books. It has become an all-too-obvious device and has little of the impact it used to. Besides, in comics, a letterer can use fonts or boldface or other stylistic tools to get across an idea. I'd like to see less of this.

Maybe the other widespread use of this is the Comic Book Guy style of declarative, like if he called this post the Worst. Post. Ever. It has its place, but I'm seeing too much of it.

2) Capitalization Of Words For Effect:
--Often to lampoon or call out pretension, like if someone criticized me by claiming I want to "Cover Big Ideas" or be "A Serious Writer." You see this all over the place now, especially when people are talking about pop culture. I've never actually counted, but I suspect Diablo Cody does it a half-dozen times in each of her "Entertainment Weekly" columns: "90210 doesn't need to be about Big Ideas or Relevant Issues. It just needs to be fun! OMG!"

Hell, _I_ use this one too often for emphasis or labels. Writing about "Casablanca," I might refer to Victor Laszlo as a True Believer who needs the assistance of Wounded Romantic Humphrey Bogart I pledge to cut back...or at least try. My referring to TCM as The Greatest Cable Channel Known to Mankind (or any variation) does not count here, as TCM has earned the honorific and I'm not being a wise-acre.

3) WTF:
--I don't have a real hang-up about language, and this is a succinct, effective way of expressing strong surprise or disapproval. But it's one of those nudge-nudge, wink-wink non-obscenities that really kind of is. There's nothing wrong with this acronym, per se, especially in casual conversation, but remember what it stands for. I think it could be utilized in a more conservative fashion than what I've seen.

I don't mind so much when it's used in blogs and such--after all, kids don't know to use the Internet, right? But when MTV announces it's adding a "Best WTF Moment" award to its Movie Awards, I think this expression is a little too mainstream.