Why I hate actually

In many cases, when I put on my editor’s hat, I gather my Fiskars machete and my Remington rifle as I prepare for the hunt.

- AA PATAWARAN WHWN

I should say for the kill.

Every draft is a forest full not so much of predators, which I like because they are swift and they are clever and they have sharp teeth and claws, but of parasites, like viruses that infect the forest. They lurk in many parts of some sentences with enough virulence to leave the rest of the forest dull, bald, or petrified. Foremost of my quarries in these hunting expeditions is the word actually.

On vocabulary.com, actually is defined as an adverb, first as a stand-in for really, and second, as a means to imply that your expectations have been proven wrong. In its first usage, I might say, “I mean I can’t see why really should be used in formal writing, except in quotes, but actually a lot of modern books use it now.” In its second usage I might say, “I was surprised that I could find the word actually used in 10 of Elements of Style co-author E.B. White’s most quotable quotes, but actually, I was relieved it was the quote gatherer who used it to introduce White’s most famous words.”

Lately, a friend of mine, bored in quarantine, asked, me why I hated actually so much.