While listening to a Hawthorn and Horowitz audiobook, my brain stumbled on the writing and fell out of the story. Anthony Horowitz had written a sentence using the same word twice. This is a curious but common pattern among writers. Jennifer A. Nielsen once wrote, “Mott strode across our long room in less than a half dozen long steps” (THE FALSE PRINCE, p. 174). Both Horowitz and Nielsen are brilliant writers. It happens. Not having the book, I can’t quote or provide a page reference, but the jarring sentence in the Horowitz story went something like this: I wasn’t quite finished … and my meeting was quite a distance across town.
Definition of Quite
In Webster’s New World Dictionary (p. 393), quite is defined as: “(1) completely, entirely; (2) really, truly; (3) to a considerable degree, ex: quite a few (or bit).” I contend that quite, completely and entirely, really and truly, to whatever degree, has no communicative value. The word’s definition suggests it is less of a qualifier and more of a word-count multiplier, maybe a redundancy.
When it Might be Right to Write Quite
The word quite may add to the lyrical cadence of the writing, as possibly in the examples above, to individualize the speech of a particular character, or for a character who is necessary in the scene but doesn’t contribute to the plot, as when Agatha Christie used it in SAD CYPRESS. It was the lawyer’s turn to say, “Quite.”
In expository writing, I think it can be eliminated for the sake of clarity and economy.
What qualifiers or repetitions cause your brain to stumble out of a story? Let me know in the comments. And please consider using “quite” less frequently. Thanks! : ) Word Less Lee